Give and Take
by clumsydolphin
Summary: Harry, Hermione, Draco, Blaise, and a few OC's take you on a partnership building retreat in order to keep their jobs. They have to learn how to not only work together, but build partnerships with past enemies.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Ok, I had one vote for Severus/Hermione, one for Blaise/Hermione, and the rest were Dramione, so here comes a different Dramione story. I hope that this will be every bit as unique as Purebloods was and that you all enjoy it very much. This story will take place roughly in their mid-twenties when they all have a bit of work experience. Now, I know the first chapter is rather short, but the rest will be about the length of the chapters in my other story. I love reviews as you all know, so review please! Clumsy!**

"That's it, I've had it!" Kingsley Shacklebolt yelled to the people sitting around the table in a conference room inside the Ministry of Magic. "I cannot afford to have my workers divided so much while most of us work tirelessly to help rebuild our world."

Looking at the table you could easily see the divide amongst the people. On one side sat Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Stella Jones, and Shawn Davis. Directly opposite them sat Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Jennifer Smithson, and Chloe Burns. Harry, Blaise, Draco, and Jennifer were all Aurors, while the other four worked in Magical Law as crime scene investigators, so all eight of them worked together very often, and the ongoing feud was causing havoc in the Ministry.

"Now, I have resorted to drastic measures to make sure this comes to an end." He picked up. "For the next month you are all on mandatory, paid leave. The Muggle Prime Minister offered an idea that I have decided to enforce with you eight. You are all going away on a retreat together, on an exclusive island where you will participate in relationship building activities, you will be partnered as follows: Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger. Harry Potter and Jennifer Smithson. Stella Jones and Blaise Zabini. Leaving Chloe Burns and Shawn Davis. These partnerships are non-negotiable and this retreat is mandatory, failure to attend will equal your loss of employment."

Kingsley looked around the room and noted the rebellious expressions on each of their faces, and sighed tiredly. "Look, I know you have all drawn lines in the sand but the war is over, and it's time to put away schoolyard grudges. If you won't do it willingly, I will force it. When you return from the retreat, if I don't see the necessary changes, one or all of you will be fired, understood?"

There were mumbled "yes, sirs." around the table.

"Very well then, you need to walk out to my secretary with your partners and receive your itinerary, then you are to leave the Ministry and not return until your retreat is over. I will see each of you August 1st to discover what happened during your trip."

Hermione was the first to rise from her chair and walk to the door without even looking to see if the ferret would follow, she was mad enough to spit! How dare Kingsley pair her with Malfoy when he knew what she'd endured in Malfoy Manor. She walked to the desk and asked for her travel information and when she looked at it she groaned. Hermione would be made to travel with him as well; she couldn't just meet up there. This was going to be awful!

When she turned to look for Harry she collided with Malfoy who was standing directly behind her.

"Watch where you're going, Granger." He stated.

"Eat shit and die Malfoy," she retorted. There were laughs behind them and she smiled as she walked to her friends.

Once they had all gathered their information Harry's group decided to go get lunch together at the Leaky Cauldron. Once there Tom told them to take the corner table, and allowed them to charm it to hide themselves and block what they talked about from and eavesdroppers that may be sitting close to them. This was necessary anytime they ate out because of the fame that Harry, and Hermione had to deal with anytime they went out in public. The server and Tom could see them, but nobody else could and that is probably why the group in the booth behind them didn't realize they were there. Hermione shushed her group when she heard Malfoy and he said her name. She dug out a pair of extendable ears and handed them to the other three and then they did a bit of eavesdropping themselves, laughing.

"He's mental if he thinks any amount of time together will make Granger and me friendly," Draco said with disgust. "What complete rubbish."

"Sorry mate, honest I am, but the man had a point. If we can all learn to let this stuff go, then it can only benefit all of us. To be honest with you, Harry and I buried the hatchet a long time ago. The two of you have been able to at least work together civilly for a while now, so why is it so hard with Granger and you?" Blaise asked.

"It might have something to do with the fact that you called her a mudblood for so many years." Chloe said in a controlled voice. "I can't stand the woman myself, but if I had been taunted for years by you Draco, I wouldn't want to buddy up either."

The fourth person at their table didn't have much to say as she hadn't been at school with the whole group; she moved here from America a year ago and just happened to make friends with the former Slytherin's. They were all Aurors together with the exception of Chloe and she just happened to get to know Blaise when she transferred and then Draco. Not that she had anything against Harry personally; she just got on better with her group. So she couldn't really add much as she didn't know the other four as well.

"Bloody Hell, thanks for reminding me Chloe, I always do appreciate it when someone reminds me what a prat I was." He answered her sarcastically. "Seriously though, I think I can put the past away with some effort with everyone but her. She's such a damn know it all, it shreds my last nerve!"

"Well I don't know much of the story, but I do know this, I will be working my ass off in the next month to get to know all four of them, because I'm quite fond of having a roof over my head and food on my table. I didn't go to school with all of you, so hopefully that will help, but I will become everyone's best friend because as much as I love you all, I love my job." Jennifer finally spoke up.

"Why the hell couldn't I have been paired up with that Stella? Urgh, if our jobs depend on Granger and me becoming friends, we'll both be out of jobs in a month." Draco growled and slammed his empty bottle back down on the table.

In the next booth all eyes were on Hermione, and she was pissed off! Before Harry could stop her, she had cast a curse at Malfoy that would cause a mossy fungus to grow around his privates and make him itch. It would take three days to wear off, and then she turned back to Harry smiling.

"That's what he gets, bloody jerk." She said.

"Hermione, you better find some way to get along with him, because Kingsley was completely serious." Harry said.

Shawn piped in at this point, "I can understand her side of things Harry, you know how awful he's always been to her. Of all the pairings, he put the only two together that really can't make peace. I don't understand pairing them up." Shawn was two years younger than Harry and Hermione, and he had been in Ravenclaw. Stella had gone to school in her native Australia.

"I don't know why, but he had his reasons. Now why don't we all head home, we have packing to do. Jennifer and I are the first ones to leave and that's at 9 a.m. tomorrow." Harry suggested.

The four friends paid their bill and got up to leave, they walked to the door without looking back, to go to their homes and prepare for the off.

Two days later Ginny was helping Hermione pack for her trip. Ginny and Harry had been married now for six months, and they were deliriously happy together. She was in her off season from the Harpies, her Quidditch team and was very bored. She helped Hermione shop for wardrobe and personal essentials for the trip and they were talking while they packed.

"I have to find some way to make this work Gin, I enjoy my job. Oh why the hell couldn't he have teamed me up with Blaise? I can get along with that one if I have to. You know what; I don't know why I didn't think of this, I will just go to Kingsley and ask for the switch. Once I remind him of a few things, I'm sure he'll have no problem with switching things." Hermione jumped up confidently.

"You go, I'll pack. Just don't get your hopes up Hermione; Harry thinks that Kingsley has a reason for pairing each person up." Ginny warned.

"What do you mean, you know all this? If you remember the torture, why pair me with him? It's not right to ask this of me Kingsley, and I'm talking to my friend, not the Minister at the moment." Hermione was not above pleading with him.

"Hermione, sweetheart, you weren't paired with Draco on a whim. I will tell you why this must work, if you promise to keep it to yourself. I know I can trust you. We're thinking of restructuring the Magical Law office and partnering one Auror and one crime scene investigator, therefore using each one's expertise to full benefit. If this change occurs, the partner you've been paired with for this exercise is the person you will be partnered with based on job ethics, expertise, and personalities." Kingsley shared with her.

Hermione could only gasp.

"Now, I have gotten to know and respect Draco Malfoy, and the two of you would make the finest team, if you can learn to let go of the past. You're probably the pairing that I'm most excited about, so please make the effort Hermione, for me as your friend and boss." He finished.

Hermione sighed and promised to try, returning home dejectedly. Ginny had finished packing and gone home by the time she got back to her flat. She sent an owl to Gin telling her she'd had no luck, and would be leaving by port key in the morning, and would talk to her in a month.

That night Hermione lay soaking in the bath tub trying to tell herself she could do this, Kingsley wouldn't ever hurt her this way if he didn't truly believe what he was saying. But she also thought he just really didn't understand how bad things were between her and Malfoy and how deep that bad blood was. Sighing, she pulled the plug in the tub to drain and dried off, donning a silk bathrobe. As she was making a cup of tea to relax before bed there was a knock at her door. She opened the door shocked to find Draco Malfoy standing there.

"We need to talk," he said as he pushed himself inside, shocking her.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So my readers, chapter two as promised. I realize there is more language in this story than the last at first, but it gets better. It is part of the anger the characters feel towards each other. Let me know what you think please, and anything you would like to see happen during this retreat! Clumsy!**

Draco Malfoy just walked through her door as if he owned the place and had every right to be there! Who the hell did he think he was! She opened her mouth to tell him to get out, but he held up his hand to stop her.

"Please, we really need to talk before tomorrow morning." He stated, so she closed the door and went to sit on the love seat leaving him to take the couch.

"Fine. Can I get you a cup of tea?" She said, remembering her manners.

"That would be great, thanks." Draco said, trying to get through this as peacefully as his aching head would allow. He looked around when she went to get the tea. The living room wasn't overly large, but not a shoebox either. It was tastefully decorated a sea shell blue with white trimming. The couch and love seat were a royal blue and white plaid material and the arm chair was royal blue. She had a lot of pictures around the room and on the walls, of her and Potter and Weasley, of her and the Weaslette, and of two people that must be her parents, he vaguely remembered that summer years ago in Flourish and Blott's seeing them.

He looked back at her when she cleared her throat to get his attention; she then set the cup of tea on the coffee table.

"Alright, you might as well say what you came to say to me Malfoy." She got straight to the point.

"Granger, I won't lie, I don't like you much, never have. The situation we find ourselves in is sure to be uncomfortable enough and I think it would be wise if we came to an agreement of sorts." Draco began.

"You want to know something Malfoy, I never liked you either. You were a ferret before Moody turned you into one, and I'm sure you're a ferret to this damn day. You want to know why this 'situation' will never work?" She said, she was so angry her hands shook.

"Enlighten me, oh wise one!" Draco spat sarcastically, angry himself now.

"When I look at your hateful face, all I see is you watching me as I was lying on the floor by your feet being tortured, and not lifting a finger to help a fellow human being. As if that wasn't enough, you then started dueling Harry and Ron when they tried to help me. So whatever you did, or ever do, to convince people that you've changed, I think you're full of shit, and I will always remain just another mudblood that's beneath you. So sell your story to somebody else who just might buy it, because I know better." She said venomously, while looking him in the eye.

"All of that is true, I've got the scars on my face to show it from where Dobby shattered that chandelier, but I have changed. It's not that you're a mudblood that you're beneath me, it's just that you're a bitch!" He answered. "Furthermore, even though I can't stand you, I'm willing to try to work with you to get through the next month, so we both keep our jobs. I tried to speak with Kingsley, he won't let us out of it, so unless you're willing to look for a new job, we each need to give and take, and reach a place of common ground to work with. I am leaving now, but you think about what I said. I will meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at 8:45 am tomorrow morning to catch our port key, let me know what you decide." With that, he left the apartment.

Hermione showed up for the port key, and Malfoy was there as promised, drinking a cup of coffee and eating Danish that was on the table in front of him.

Hermione walked up, "Fine, I'm willing to try, but I make no promises. I don't want to be around you any more than necessary, so as long as you stay away from me as much as possible, I will try to work with you when I have too. We'll get through this 'retreat' and then we stay the hell away from each other." She said, sticking out her hand to shake his.

"Deal," he accepted. "Who knows, Granger, maybe we'll leave this program as friends."

She laughed at that, "Don't hold your breath Malfoy," He heard the unspoken end of that sentence loud and clear and chuckled as they got up and grabbed a hold of their port key at the same time. Then felt the tug and they were gone.

They had a rough landing and both fell over, Draco fell directly on top of Hermione, who reacted as if she'd been cursed. Shoving him over, they were both blushing as they looked into each other's eyes. If she was being honest, his eyes were quite beautiful when they weren't filled with hate and disdain. She was shaken from the thought though by someone clearing their throat.

"Welcome to The Lightbridge Island. My name is Valerie; I am one of the greeters here. You must be Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy." A woman who was plump, and had a cheery smile stuck out her hand and shook both of theirs in turn.

"Pleasure to meet you," Hermione said, being friendly. After all, it wasn't her fault that they had to be here.

"Well you can just leave your luggage here, it will be taken to your bungalow. I will show you around." She offered.

They followed the nice woman as she gave them a tour. The main lounge had a bar, a dining room, a few conference rooms, and an outdoor pool with access to the bar. It all looked tranquil and serene. The path they took away from the lounge led to a little yellow bungalow, just beyond which you could make out the sound of the ocean. She pointed out another path that would lead to the beach.

"You will spend the next two days and nights in the bungalow alone. You have access to the beach, but you're not allowed to visit anywhere else. This is meant to be an exercise getting to know each other in a new way as, well if not friends, then colleagues. All you have to do for food or beverages is enter the kitchen and think about what you want, point your wand at the oven or refrigerator, and it will appear inside. Do you have any questions?" she asked.

Hermione knew she must resemble a fish with her mouth hanging open the way it was, but HOW was she supposed to spend that much time with him and not go crazy. She felt like she would hyperventilate soon as she tried to calm herself down.

Malfoy was thinking he must have died and gone to hell! Two days alone with the know it all, he'd be insane inside of twelve hours. Sighing, he shook his head at the lady and she smiled and told them if they needed to speak with her, each bungalow was supplied an owl, and all they needed was to send her a message and she would return to them.

Once she was gone, the silence was deafening. Neither one of them knew what to say to each other, or how to act now that they were alone. With a sigh, Hermione turned to find the bedrooms, she took the one closest to the ocean so that maybe the gentle sound would help relax her. The room was a light green color with a double bed with a white lacy comforter and a white gauzy canopy. There was a bathroom with a huge soaking bathtub and a separate shower. There were double marble sinks and the bathroom was a pearl color.

Her bags were on the bed when she left the bathroom, and she set about the task of unpacking. When that was done she changed into her swimsuit and a faded pair of jean shorts and grabbed a big, fluffy beach towel from the little stand in the bathroom and headed to the living room intending to go to the beach. She stopped in her tracks however when Draco left his bedroom dressed in swimming trunks carrying a towel and book as well. She couldn't help laughing at the whole situation, and after a minute he joined in.

"That beach is bound to be big enough for the both of us, without having to bother each other." Hermione smiled and said.

"You're inevitably right." He said, "Enjoy your day." Then he walked out.

Hermione had been at the beach for an hour sitting out and reading, when she'd get hot she would venture out in the water and enjoy the sheer power that the ocean contained. It was the strongest power she'd ever felt and made her feel very small. She fell in love with the ocean a long time ago on a family vacation, and it felt good to be here again.

When she got out she decided to lay on her stomach and read to make sure the sun was evenly distributed and she didn't end up burnt. So she tried to apply her sunblock but was having issues spreading it evenly. She looked up the beach about 200 feet, and sighed, knowing she had no choice, and began making her way over to Malfoy.

"Malfoy, I hate to ask this, but I need your help. Can you spread this sun block on my back; I really would rather not deal with sunburn on top of everything else we're going to have to do." Hermione asked nicely, with a smile trying to be as friendly as possible with him.

He looked up at her to see that she must be trying to smile, but it looked rather painful which made him smirk. She did look really good in that bikini, what would it hurt. Then she'd be on her way, and he could read in peace.

"Ok, I will spread it on you, if you return the favor." He offered.

"You have a deal" she said and handed him the tube, then she turned around.

Draco spread the sunblock and when she turned around to rub some on his skin, she noticed his book.

"Anna Karenina! I love Tolstoy. You do realize he was a Muggle, right?" She asked as she rubbed the sun block on his back, secretly confused by how touching him made her feel. This was Malfoy!

"Funnily enough, I did know that. Listen Granger, you don't know anything about me or who I am, beyond the prat of the century you knew in school. I'm sure you've grown and changed as you got older, the same applies to me." He said.

"I guess, well you're all done, thanks for the help, enjoy your story." She said as she turned and walked back to her towel and book.

She found herself thinking about him, damn that book! Damn those broad shoulders and smooth back too. She got back in the cool water of the ocean trying to distract herself. She'd always known he was intelligent; the two of them had topped the list of the top five students academically at graduation. She had always been rather smug about the fact that the mudblood was the only one to beat him, he came in second. It had made her proud that she'd beat him. So she wasn't sure why it was such a surprise to find him reading Tolstoy, which can be difficult to read, but she was gob smacked since it was a favorite of hers.

She chastised herself, "Think of something else Hermione."

"I have tried, leave me alone." She answered herself.

"Huh, who knew you even argue with yourself, is there no one you don't argue with?" Draco asked from behind her.

She jumped as she turned, and ended up falling underwater and came up coughing. She turned and glared at him while she was blushing at being caught talking to herself.

"I just came over to tell you I'm returning to the bungalow, it's not smart to head out in the water this far when you are alone. " He said holding up his hands in a placating way.

"Thanks, I'm not ready to head back yet, I have been away from the ocean too long to give it up just yet." She smiled.

"Alright, see you later."

Hermione couldn't believe it, she and Malfoy had just spent an afternoon alone, sort of, and they hadn't gotten into a fight or cursed each other once. That set some kind of precedent, she was sure. It completely baffled her; it's not exactly what their history would have predicted. Maybe she should try to make the best of this situation, like he was. The faster they appeared to be friendly, the faster the whole thing could be over, and maybe if they passed this month fairly well, Kingsley would be more willing to hear her out, and give her a different partner. That idea expanded until she had a concrete plan, and then she left the water to gather her things. She and Malfoy had some things to work out!

"Malfoy, I have a plan." She said as she knocked on his bedroom door, " Come out here, we need to work this out. I know how to get us out of this!"

"Fine, but only if we discuss it over dinner, I'm starving." He said as he came out of the bedroom in his pajama pants.

To be continued!


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So, this chapter is Hermione's big plan and a great big surprise when they head out for the first challenge their required to complete. Will she be able to count on Draco to help her get through it? Read on to find out, then leave a review when you're finished so I know what you think! Clumsy!**

They both ordered their dinners, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts for Draco, while Hermione ordered spaghetti and a spring mix garden salad. When they got to the table Hermione started talking.

"Before I tell you my plan, you have to swear to never tell anyone what we talk about, it's important. I haven't even told Harry." She said and then looked him in the eye.

"I promise not to reveal what we discuss tonight, though I'm surprised you'd trust me to keep my word." He promised.

She waved that away, "Ok, first you need to understand something. On the night we picked Harry up from his aunt and uncle's during the war before his seventeenth birthday, the Order members were paired up, one would be the lead, and the other would drink Polyjuice and become Harry. Kingsley was my lead and I was his Potter. As soon as we were in the sky to return to our safe house we were set upon by what seemed like hundreds of Death Eaters, and we were in a fight for our lives, even Voldemort came after us at first. Needless to say, surviving that kind of ordeal with someone creates a certain bond. He is special to me and vice versa."

She was watching him to make sure he understood. He nodded, so she continued.

"After he announced this completely hair brained idea, I went and saw him alone to try and tell him how pairing the two of us up was impossible. I even went so far as to ask him to change me to Blaise but he wouldn't. He then told me why this was necessary and what the plan is when we're done." She told him.

He sat up to full attention at this point.

"This is why you can't tell anyone else, why I can't even tell my heart brother. It would be betraying a man who means the world to me. But you have to understand what is happening in order for my plan to succeed." Hermione was almost pleading with him to understand.

Draco felt a bit incensed that she would prefer Zabini, but he wasn't sure why. This story of hers however had him intrigued.

"Ok, if it will make you more comfortable trusting me not to tell anyone, I will tell you a very embarrassing secret that nobody knows when you're finished. Deal?" Draco offered.

Hermione smiled, "I'll take you up on that! Now here's Kingsley's plan. They want to restructure Magical Law and have every Auror partnered with a Crime Scene Investigator, to utilize all areas of expertise during investigations."

It didn't take a stretch of the imagination to see where she was headed. "So we're partnered up with the person who's to become our permanent partner in the new system?" He asked.

She nodded. "Don't get upset though, because remember I have a solution."

She leaned closer to him in her excitement over her plan, Draco didn't think she noticed, but he certainly did. Her eyes glowed and she was looking triumphant. He shook his head a little, and tuned back in.

"We fake it! It's so very simple I don't know why it took so long to realize it. The two of us work together to excel in whatever they have planned for us, we beat the other pairs and when we return we can show that we've learned the error of our ways, and then suggest we would be better paired with other people to share our knowledge of overcoming dislike and resentment, thereby insuring the success of the merger he wants!" She finished happily and took a drink of her wine.

"Granger, that is brilliant! There is just one small detail you seem to have forgotten." He looked at her, thinking her plan through, but they had to work out this one gap.

"We don't know what we're going to be experiencing here to know how to beat the other partners." He explained when she continued to stare at him.

"Malfoy, honestly!" she huffed. "I think your forgetting that we were the top of the class, we can figure this out if we put our heads together."

"Well, I'm certainly willing to try but we'll have to set aside our dislike and work together, or your little plan has no chance." He told her.

"Done. Now, what's this secret?" she rubbed her hands together, and he actually started laughing.

By the time they had finished hammering out the details of the plan it was well after midnight and Draco was knackered. He fell into his bed and closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but he kept seeing HER eyes all lit up with her excitement. Her eyes were a deep brown, almost black and her soft looking brown hair and eyebrows were shaped in a way to enhance those soulful eyes.

Those eyes had been haunting him for years now, but the look in them tonight as she talked; he knew he'd never forget. Something about this Granger, the one working with him instead of fighting with him, made him edgy in a way he'd never been before, and he didn't know what to do about that fact.

When Hermione woke up the next morning she went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, then changed into her workout clothes, then grabbed her MP3 player and yoga supplies and headed for the beach. After warming up her muscles she set out for her run on the beach, running to the rhythm of the songs she had in her exercise playlist. She giggled to herself when she thought about last night, and Malfoy telling her his big secret. The man was honestly terrified of butterflies; she'd never met anyone before that was afraid of the delicate creatures. After she'd run her normal distance she turned back and walked the rest of the way to her yoga set up and finished her routine. Since the beach was secluded, only she and Draco had access to this part of the island, and he was asleep, she decided to skinny dip in the ocean for a bit before heading in to shower. She felt a bit adventurous this morning and this would be a fun way to cool off!

Draco was listening to his Ipod while heading to the beach, he figured a nice swim would be a different way to exercise this morning than his usual work out, and work muscles he didn't normally use. His music was cranked loud enough that he didn't hear Hermione splashing around before he stepped through the path opening to the beach. He definitely saw her though and stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, and he was so shocked by it that he didn't turn away immediately, just looked at her. When his eyes travelled up her body to meet her surprised eyes, he turned around.

Hermione shrieked and fell under the water, she came up coughing and spitting water out of her mouth. She couldn't believe he saw her naked!

Draco turned off his music and started explaining, "Granger, I didn't know you were out here, I just was listening to the music a bit loud and didn't hear you. I'm sorry; I wasn't trying to be a peeper or anything."

"Don't turn around until I say or that fungus you dealt with after the Leaky Cauldron when we found out about this little trip will seem like a walk in the park." Hermione threatened.

Draco gasped, "That was you? You couldn't have been there, we would've seen you."

"I quote, '_He's mental if he thinks any amount of time together will make Granger and me friendly, "What complete rubbish.'_ She proved to him.

"That was dirty Granger, especially given that you were eavesdropping." He accused her.

"You can turn around now. I'm going to shower, and we're never discussing what just happened, got it?"

She then took off back to the bungalow, completely embarrassed. While she showered, she could almost still feel those eyes burn a path up her body, and the feelings that arose in her at the memory were confusing the hell out of her.

The next day they headed together for the lounge where they were supposed to all meet and then they'd be given instructions. She smiled when she walked through the doors and saw her friends, hurrying over to them and hugging each in turn.

When she got to Harry he whispered, "How are you? Has he been an insufferable ass?"

"He hasn't been too bad actually. We've gotten along fairly well, considering." She answered honestly. "Although, it was rather humiliating when he caught me skinny dipping!"

Harry looked at her, his eyes wide open and then he just cracked up laughing at his best friend, and tears flowed out of his eyes.

All laughter and conversation was brought to a halt when a man in jeans and a black T-shirt walked up to the group. "Good morning. I am Rich Thomas, and I will be one of your coaches during your stay. I would like you to split off into partners." He waited as some of them took their places grumbling. Draco and Hermione however made no complaints, or showed any outward sign that they disputed their pairing. The 'Plan' had begun.

"Ok, now the first exercise we're going to do is a trust building experience. I want everyone to follow me, when we reach our destination you will all lay your wands down off to the side. For the challenge, you will not be allowed to use your magic. You will succeed only by fully working with your partner and leaning on each other for support." He told them. Then he turned around and we all followed, a bit uncertain about having to leave our wands behind.

We walked about four miles toward the center of the island. It was a beautiful walk, there were so many different animals, and they passed two waterfalls, and many, many caves. The walk was so peaceful and breathtaking that she almost forgot HE was beside her. So when their hands brushed, she was shocked back to reality. A few minutes later he elbowed her and pointed ahead. Her stomach dropped, she just knew that was where they would stop, and she could have cried, because she's so terrified of heights that there was no way they could come out of this in the lead.

Sure enough Rich stopped and the base of a cliff that was about 150 feet high. They were each then tethered together in a safety harness. When everyone had geared up, Rich explained what we were to do.

"The point to this exercise is for you to depend on each other to reach safety. You will work together to climb to the top. The team with that works best together gets a point each. So, don't forget while your climbing that it's not about speed, it's about the journey up. Work with each other to find the best way for each of you. You may begin whenever you're ready." He finished, then walked over and conjured a chair to watch from.

Hermione ran to the bushes and heaved her breakfast. She was in the midst of a full on panic attack, and when she heard footsteps behind her she said, "Harry, how am I going to do this? What the hell did Kingsley think he was doing making me do this?"

"Last time I checked Granger, Potter was about 5 feet off the ground doing his climb." Draco uttered.

Hermione spun around so fast that she lost her footing and fell into his chest, her arms going behind him, and mortifyingly one of her hands landed on his arse! She blushed furiously and got back onto her feet in a hurry.

He smirked, "While I can understand why you would want to cop a feel Granger, our plan would actually be better served if you saved that for later and we start the exercise!"

She growled at him, "Whatever Malfoy, that big head of yours might hinder our climb! Actually, I am terrified of heights, that's why I don't fly. I can't do this Malfoy."

"Yes you can, I will be right there, and I promise I won't let you be hurt this time." He said with true conviction. "Now, we're going to go over there and you aren't to look towards the ground at all, okay? Just look at me, and we'll get through it together. Let's show 'em how it's done, shall we?"

He then took ahold of her hand in his and pulled her along with him. When they got to the start point, they saw everyone else was way ahead of them.

"Granger, see that rock sticking out over there?" He pointed to a jagged rock jutting out within arm's reach. "I want you to grab it with your hand, then I will lift you up and you put your foot over there." Pointing to another rock.

She nodded and did what he told her. This strategy worked well for them until about half way up, Hermione accidentally looked down, and in her panic she slipped. Her heart flew into her throat as she screamed. Then she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her to his side where she found purchase on a natural ledge of sorts.

"I keep my promises; I won't let you get hurt this time." Draco vowed to her. She was confused by his wording of the sentence for the second time this morning.

They began climbing again once Hermione got a semblance of control over her fear. The whole way up he encouraged her, pointed out the safest place for her hands and feet. Up they climbed, higher and higher. He talked about nothing the whole way, just babbling to keep her focus off her fear and she was stunned when she realized that they had done it. He helped her make it to the top, and when they were on solid ground safe and sound, she hugged him without thought, and thanked him profusely.

"No problem, I'm quite sure at some point you will have to do the same thing. I have fears as well." He admitted.

Draco found himself feeling proud of her for what she had faced; she was a very brave woman to have done that with her fear. One more thing that went on the fast growing list of things he admired about Hermione Granger.

When the group returned to the resort's main lounge they all decided to get dinner as a group, instead of returning to the isolation of their separate bungalows. They all found themselves interspersed with each other, one group instead of two, and it wouldn't hit any of them until later that there hadn't been one awkward moment during the two hours they all sat and talked.

**AN: So, I'm not a rock climber so I don't know all the procedures, so if you catch something wrong in there, I apologize. Just take it with a grain of salt, please. I did recount my own experience when I went camping with some family and friends. My cousins and I thought it would be fun during our hike to climb a cliff, and I got stuck in the middle because I looked down, and my oldest cousin had to climb back down and direct me up, so Hermione's experience was mine.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I am officially insane! I am writing two stories at once, glutton for punishment, lol. Not too bad though because The Other Trio will only be 11 chapters, one for each month of the school year and an epilogue. Please check that story out also, but it's not a Dramione, or even romance. It's more of an adventure. Now, on to why you're really here! Chapter 4 of Give and Take brought to you by Reece's Fastbreak, oh what a happy sugar rush! Clumsy!**

Draco was awakened by a blood curdling scream! He jumped out of bed and grabbed his wand instinctually, and ran to the source of the noise. The continuing scream was coming from Hermione's room, so he threw the door open, but she wasn't there. He ran to the bathroom and broke in and was stopped dead in his tracks. She was standing there dripping water all over the floor wearing nothing but a small bath towel.

"Get it!" she screamed again and pointed into the shower.

He walked cautiously to the shower, and it's good he did, because there on the floor tiles was a humongous scorpion. He raised his wand to it, but she grabbed his fore arm.

"Wait! What are you going to do to it?" She asked him.

"I had planned on stunning it, then relocating it to a proper environment, unless you'd rather I kill it?" He questioned with a raise eyebrow, already knowing her answer.

"No, no stun it, I don't want it killed, just out of here!" she approved.

"Stupefy!" He said and the scorpion was knocked out cold.

Once the danger was over, both of them looked at each other. She was in a towel and blushing because she was pleasantly checking him out in nothing but a pair of boxers! He looked _very, very_ good in them. He hadn't taken the time to pull on pants when he heard her scream, he just rolled and ran. Not that she minded, but she was very upset with herself for wanting to touch him, this was MALFOY, for goodness sake!

Draco hurriedly gathered up the scorpion and rushed out of the room before she could see the affect she was having on him, especially while she was studying his body. He _was_ only in boxers, so it would be quite evident. He didn't even like Hermione Granger, or was she growing on him without his knowing it? Whatever the reason, he thought it best to vamoose before they were both embarrassed.

One hour later they were all gathered in the main lounge for today's meeting with Rich. Hermione was covertly watching Malfoy out of the corner of her eye. Or so she thought.

"Alright," Harry said to both of them jokingly. "Who saw who naked?" His smile slipped however when both Draco and Hermione both blushed furiously. Drawing his wand out, Harry pointed it at him. "What the hell! Malfoy, I swear I will hex you into a slug again!"

A cough behind them made them all turn around. "Sorry to interrupt guys, but we have work to do." Rich said with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright, today we're going to do something that will be uncomfortable for all of you, but hopefully you will learn much from it. I would like you all to return to your bungalows and retrieve a change of clothes. I would suggest you also bring along something warm as you won't be returning tonight." He informed them. They all looked at each other confused, but shrugged and left to do as requested of them.

Within twenty minutes they had all returned and were again following Rich. Hermione brought her music and a book along as well, so that she had something to fill the time while they were gone, just in case. Draco only brought what he was told, a change of clothes, both cool and warm. Later on tonight though, he would be grateful that Hermione had thought ahead. They were brought to a halt in a very wild looking forest area, Hermione shivered with nerves. Draco put his hand on the small of her back to comfort her before thinking about it. She felt it, but decided not to comment on it, and told herself it was part of the show for their plan.

"You will each be assigned an area of this magically enhanced forest. There are wards set up so that no matter how far you travel you will not bump into the other teams. They can be an inch from your face and you will walk by without seeing them, and vice versa." He explained to them. "Also, you're allowed your wands during your time here, but only certain charms and spells will work. You're allowed any defensive spell, although you certainly should not need them. You can make fire to cook with; however you cannot use the wand to cook for you. You also may not hunt with it; you will have to make weapons for hunting if that is your wish, or you may physically gather fruit, vegetables, roots etc. You must find or build your own shelter by hand, but may set defensive spells if that makes you more comfortable in the shelter." He looked at each person to assess how they were taking these instructions. For the most part they looked like they hadn't heard correctly, this always made him laugh.

"You are supplied with two blankets, one for each person. You may lie directly on the ground and use it for cover, or share the blankets and lay on one and cover with the other. The area is temperature controlled by magic for a purpose, to get you to work together for survival. The evenings will be cool, so keep that in mind." As soon as he finished the sentence Miss Granger's hand shot into the air. "Yes?"

"Did I just hear you say evenings, as in more than one?" She asked seemingly shocked.

"I did forget to mention that didn't I?" he responded. "Yes, you and your partner will be out here alone, with only each other to depend on for five days and nights. If you have a life threatening medical emergency, just shoot red sparks in the air, and help with apparate to your location. Any other questions?"

He started delivering them to their separate parts of the forest after that. Harry and Jennifer were dropped off first, next was Chloe and Shawn. Draco and Hermione were the third team left in a part of the forest that looked ominous and frightening. When they were left alone, both just stood taking it all in, somewhat dazed.

Hermione was the first to speak. "Maybe we should discuss what kind of shelter we want. I was thinking we could find a cave, but if you'd rather we can build a shelter. I'm sure it can't be too difficult."

"No, I think you're right, let's go with a cave. It's easier to defend if the need arises." He agreed with her. Then they set off walking to find their shelter.

"Maybe we should gather food as we walk, in case we don't find any close to where we make camp. He didn't say we can't transfigure, so we could make a bag and put food in it." Draco suggested. He was trying to keep his head on straight, because he knew they would be watched to make sure they were working together and not fighting, which he reminded her.

After an hour of walking, Hermione needed to stop and rest. They sat and started eating some of the food they had gathered on their hike through the trees. She put her music in her ears and tried to relax for a few minutes. Draco tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Who are you listening too?" He asked conversationally.

"A bit of everything, I have a very eclectic collection. Right now Over You by Daughtry is on, Daughtry is my favorite. Eminem is my second favorite so there is a lot of his work. I really have a bit of everything except classical because it gives me a headache. If you'd like, I could share with you," offering one of her ear buds to him with a smile.

He smiled back and put the ear bud in his left ear, while she put the other in her right and started the music again. They sat that way for about an hour, comfortably until the sun started falling lower in the sky and the shadows of the forest thickened. An hour later they came across a cave that they both agreed would be perfect, so they went to gather what supplies they could find. Hermione went to gather twigs and sticks that could be used to keep the fire going, and Draco was gathering fire wood. They both would gather anything edible that they could find and bring it back to the shelter with them.

Draco was almost back with the things he had gathered when his foot fell into a hole in the ground he couldn't see because his hands were so full. He yelled out as he fell, his foot twisting and he heard the crack right before he hit the ground. He kept yelling for Hermione, because when he fell his wand went flying and he didn't know where to. She came running with her wand drawn, war instincts still intact, and looked around for a cause of his panic. Seeing nothing endangering them, she then knelt by his side to find out what was wrong, because obviously something was.

"My ankle, broken." He grunted. "Fell over hole." He knew his sentences were disjointed, but he couldn't help it, he was hurting fiercely.

"Well I don't think they would consider this an emergency, so I can fix the break for you or I can send up sparks and we can see if they would send help. Which would you prefer?" She asked after looking at his very broken ankle.

"I never thought I would say this, but I trust you, please it hurts." He chose and it was true, he did trust her a great deal. Maybe not completely, but he knew she wouldn't walk away without helping him, and she wouldn't hurt him further.

"Ok, well we had to mend many broken bones during our year on the run, so we developed a system that we found worked. When I fix it, you will feel the exact pain you felt when it broke, it isn't pleasant at all. My right hand is my wand hand, so hold my left while I mend it, and you can squeeze it if you need to, okay?" she said, offering him her hand which he gratefully held onto.

"One….two….three, Episky" she said. He yelled out his pain, and she automatically reached out to rub his face comfortingly. He raised his eyes to hers, and her hand froze. She also was unable to break the eye contact as his hand reached up and covered her hand on his cheek.

Clearing her throat and finally looking away, she said, "Alright, let's get you back to the cave, and settled, and then I will come get the stuff you've gathered.

She helped him get to his feet, and she pulled his arm over her shoulder to help him shuffle back to their cave. Just because she can mend the break doesn't mean it's healed, it still takes a few days to get back to normal. They entered the cave and walked over to where they had set out their blankets. As she tried to lower him to the ground, she lost her footing and they bumped heads. That was it for Draco, he started to laugh, he laughed so hard tears formed in his eyes, and soon she was caught up in the laughter as well.

"What an experience. I think we should all get together, and kidnap the Minister ourselves and make him do this exercise for five days!" Draco said lightheartedly making her giggle all over again.

"I volunteer to help!" she gasped through her chuckles. "I am going to get the stuff we need before dark settles in, I will only be a little while, so stay there and don't get up on that foot okay?" She said when the laughter had died out.

"My wand is out there, if it's not too much trouble could you bring that back with you?" he asked.

Knowing what it feels like to not have your wand, almost worse than being naked, she raised her wand, "Accio Draco's wand." It flew into her hand a minute later and he thanked her before she walked out to gather the things he had dropped.

Later they were sitting close to the fire, and she had scooted right next to him so that they could read her book together to pass the time. When one of them was ready to turn the page they patiently waited for the other to catch up. They had been doing this for about a half an hour when he cleared his throat.

"You said Draco." He stated evenly. She looked up at him with a confused look on her face and her head tilted slightly to the side.

"When you summoned my wand, you said Draco, not Malfoy."

"Oh! Ummm.." she stammered.

"No, don't worry. It's just that, I have never heard you say that before, and I liked it, Hermione." He said, the name feeling strange as he said her name for the first time also.

"Wow, it is strange isn't it? I'm used to Mudblood or Granger from you. I guess I can get used to it." She smiled somewhat shyly, confused about what she was feeling right now.

When the fire was dying down, they each laid on one side of it facing each other. They kept catching the other one staring, and then they would look away in confusion. Neither one was prepared yet to admit to what was happening, that they were each attracted to the other. Both fell asleep close to the same time, but Hermione woke up shivering. It was freezing, and her muscles were tense, that was why she woke up. Draco experienced the same, and it was making his muscles even sorer because of the fall. Hermione grabbed her blanket and crawled over to his side.

"Body heat?" she offered, and he opened his arms. She slowly lay down and covered them with her own blanket before laying her head down on the pillow she had transfigured from a rock and stared at him. He scooted each of them closer, and then they both fell asleep a lot warmer than they had been moments earlier, and much more comfortable with the other than they ever thought possible.

**AN: Hope you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, you actually are getting this story because of the reviews, I was all set to write about whoever until you all chose Dramione again. It helps keep me motivated with the stories when I know they are being enjoyed, or change it up if something is wrong. So truly, thank you for your time taken to review. Clumsy!**

Hermione awoke slowly, feeling strangely at peace. Well that is until she realized she was tangled up with a very warm body, so she turned her head and came face to face with Draco. His grey eyes were open and staring intensely into her dark brown ones and the look in them had a blush heating her cheeks, and a warm tense feeling in her stomach, one she hadn't felt in a long time. That feeling made her finally own up to being very strongly attracted to him. Admitting it to herself, though she wouldn't tell anyone else, made her feel better about the whole thing, now that wasn't so hard after all. As she was thinking this, her eyes strayed down to his lips and then quickly back to his eyes, which held a different look than she remembered ever seeing there before.

Draco woke up because she was talking in her sleep; she was also rubbing his body in her sleep. She was quite affectionate in her dreams apparently. She had run her hands up his chest at one point, another had her hands running through his hair, not that he minded in the least because he had always loved his hair being rubbed. He'd also written her off as a prude years ago, his reasons for doing so he doubted she'd believe, but the dream she was having said otherwise, she certainly wasn't shy in her dreams!

He was actually a little sorry when she showed signs of waking up. He could have removed his arms from where they lay holding her in her sleep when she rolled away from him in her sleep right before waking. Instead he pulled her closer, deciding to let the chips fall where they would. He needed to see her reaction, because he couldn't fight this attraction he had to her much longer.

So when she softly turned over in his arms, he watched many emotions play through those soulful eyes of hers. Tranquility turned to surprise turned to embarrassment, then shock, then the beautiful brown eyes started warming up and he understood that last emotion for exactly what it was. It didn't hurt that he'd also heard her call out his name a few times while she'd been asleep, but she didn't need to know that!

When her eyes dropped down to his lips, then looked back at him he decided the hell with it and moved closer. She stiffened up at first, but made no move to stop him either, and he watched her eyes the whole way, and when he was just a breath away from the kiss…..

**CRACK!**

Rich was at the mouth of the cave. "Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, is it alright for me to enter?" He asked and Hermione stood quickly, the mood shattered.

Draco groaned softly, "Sure Rich, come on in."

"I am here to check on your injury, I brought a few supplies to help the healing along, although you need to stay off of it for another day, it does shorten the healing process. Miss Granger did a good job healing you." He told Draco.

Draco and Hermione looked at him in surprise wondering how he even knew about the injury let alone the fact that she had healed him.

"We have been watching all the pairs, yours isn't the only accident that occurred since I left you here yesterday. Mr. Potter, Miss Jones, and Mr. Davis all had incidents as well." He informed the pair.

Hermione gasped, and was overcome with a feeling of panic! She'd spent too many years protecting Harry to be able to let it go very easily, it was always her first instinct with him. Rich seemed to read the fear in her eyes, for he held up a hand.

"They are all just fine. Miss Smithson, Mr. Zabini, and Miss Burns were all very good at taking care of their partners. Mr. Malfoy here had the worst of the injuries anyways, and you know how well he is, so no need to worry. Now, I am going to leave these potions for you Mr. Malfoy and you are to take one swallow every hour on the hour, understand? Tomorrow you will wake up feeling as good as new." He told Draco, who nodded. He was worried about Hermione, she had walked to the far back of the cave and was sitting quietly, keeping to herself.

Once Rich had left again, Draco took his potions and then stood with difficulty and started to make his way over to her but after the first three steps though he hissed in pain, which made her look up.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked sternly, rushing over to him. "You're supposed to stay off that ankle until tomorrow! What are you thinking?" When he was settled on the blankets again, he patted the blanket next to him inviting her to sit.

"I was thinking that you looked a little sad, or upset and maybe you would want to talk about it?"

"Thanks, but I'm just worried about him, that's all. I'm sure he's fine or this whole exercise would be halted. It's just that after so many years of looking after someone, it's not easy to just shut it off." She explained. He nodded at her to continue. "He's basically my brother, and when he's hurt I want to help him." She just shrugged as she faded into silence.

"Look, I know this isn't easy for you, but Jenny is really good with healing spells. I know you don't know her well, but he's in safe hands, I promise. Almost as safe as the hands I was in, thank you Hermione for helping me. I know I don't deserve it, but I'm grateful just the same." He said sincerely.

She looked at him puzzled. "What do you mean you don't deserve it?" she was truly confused.

"I meant exactly what I said, I don't deserve it. I hope to one day, but I haven't earned it yet." He stated simply and very quietly, almost a whisper.

She shivered without knowing why and reached out to him, because for the very first time since they were eleven year olds on the way to Hogwart's he looked haunted, deeply haunted.

She wrapped her arms around him and tried to comfort his soul with her hug. It's all she could think to do, and she really didn't think much about it before she did it, it was just in her nature to try to help.

"Draco, I have an idea about why you feel like this." She pulled back to look in his grey eyes once again. "You need to try letting it go. You made an adults decision as a child, and followed a man who's responsibility it was to show you a better way and didn't. We all had difficult decisions to make, and we made the one's we had to."

"Why are you, of all people trying to comfort me? You have more reasons than anyone to hate me, and last week even, you did. Hell, last week I thought you were nothing but a bitter bitch. Maybe not without reason, but still, the point is you shouldn't be taking care of me the way you are." He vented.

"I don't know how it happened, I think it had something to do with you catching me when you could have let me fall, but I decided I didn't hate you as much as I thought I did. I made peace with our past and decided to leave it there where it belongs." She told him honestly. "Maybe it's the setting, who knows, but I would like to start over with you, and leave both our hatred behind. You know, we could end up friends, worse things have happened." She laughed.

He smiled at her and decided he needed to explain a promise he made. "You remember when you were having your meltdown about the cliff? I promised I wouldn't let you be hurt this time?"

She nodded.

"I should have stopped her Hermione. I was a coward, and I have hated myself so much since. I even hated you because I felt that way. I still have nightmares about it, you know. If I could turn back and relive any moment in my life, it would be that one. Nobody deserves what happened to you and certainly not for something as stupid as blood status." He confessed, and then looked up at her.

Hermione didn't know what to say, even if she could speak at the moment. So she did the only thing she could to comfort him in that moment, and reached for his hand and held it.

"It never really was about your blood status, did you know that? Not for Aunt Bella, and not for me. I was her pureblooded nephew and she tortured me at least twice a month! She never really required a reason, she was just a nutter, Azkaban broke her mind." He continued. He couldn't look at her for the rest of his confession so instead he looked down at their hands and started to play with her fingers.

"Do you want to know why I hated you?" He asked. "I will confess it if you want to know."

"Please tell me."

He took a deep breath and blew it out, "You chose him."

"What? Who did I choose?" Hermione didn't understand.

"Remember, I hated you _before_ I knew your parentage, not after. The reason was because at first I wanted to be your friend, but you went with them instead. A few years later after you damn near broke my nose it became about something else altogether. I admired the courage behind the punch you see, maybe I already had the feelings then, I don't know. What I do know is I wanted to be the one to take you to the ball, and Krum got to do it instead because I couldn't. You wouldn't have believed me if I had told you I'd crushed on you for a long time, you would have believed I was setting you up for something. So again you would have chosen someone else over me." He looked up at her, she looked very shocked. He smiled a little.

"See, I fancied myself to be a little bit in love with you, but you never chose me and never would have chosen me over perfect Potter. So I hated you, and him, and Weasley for the same reason. It was always those two for you, with no room for anyone else, least of all me." He finished.

"Draco, I don't know what to say. That is honestly something I never thought to hear from you."

He laughed a nervous laugh, "Yeah well, maybe after all this time, you deserve to understand, finally. I have liked you for a very long time. Probably from the very moment you hit me, and now I want to ask you something, if that's ok?" He looked at her.

"Alright." She said nervously.

"Why did you choose them over me? At the beginning?" He asked.

"Oh, I don't think I did Draco." She raised her finger to stop his protest. "Please, let me finish." At his nod she continued her answer. "I never knew you saw it as that black and white, that I had made a choice you see. All I knew was the boy who was nice to me on the train one day suddenly hated me the next week. I never understood what I had done, just that we weren't friends. I'm explaining this all wrong." She said, and he was still playing with her fingers, distracting her.

"Go on, I'm keeping up." He encouraged.

"Ok, well I guess the best way to explain it is to start from the time I started school. Not Hogwart's, Muggle schooling starts at five years old. I never fit in, or had friends you see, even then I was a freak, in my entire life from that age, I've never been not hated for whatever reason. In the Muggle school I was disliked because I was different, this was a long time before I knew I was a witch. When I was being picked on, well you know we aren't able to control our magic at that age, and I didn't even know I had magic so I couldn't explain all the strange things that happened, I just knew they happened around me. When I came to Hogwart's I was so happy because I knew everyone there would be like me, we all had magic so I would finally fit in and have friends. Well then I found out that because I was Muggleborn I would still have the same problems, only this time I had Harry and Ron so it was easier. I didn't know that you and Harry and Ron disliked each other for a few days, and didn't know I was making a choice between you in your eyes. I just was trying to make friends in my House for the first time in my life."

"I think I understand," Draco told her.

"If you had talked to me then, I could have told you all of that. Although when Voldemort came back, that would have ended any friendship we had anyway. You wouldn't have been allowed to have a Mudblood for a friend, and we both know it." She said.

"So, do you think we can try now? If I can be your friend at all that is." Draco said to her.

"What does that mean?" she asked, a little bit insulted as she grabbed her hand back from him.

"See, you misunderstand me again." He smiled, taking her hand again. "What I meant Hermione is that I'm not that eleven year old boy now. I'm also not Potter or Weasley who grew up best friends with you. I am a guy who has liked you from the sidelines for a very long time and I'm not sure how to deal with that part of it to be able to be your friend."

"Oh." She said, frowning. "What if we just try getting to know one another in a positive way, wherever that may lead us, do you think that could work?"

Entwining their fingers he looked at her and smiled. "I would like that very much."

**AN2: Ok folks, how'd I do this chapter? Let me know!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Okay readers; please don't kill me for taking so long to get this up. Had some trouble with it actually, had something completely different written, but it wasn't working for me. I got some advice and found the problem, thanks Skyla-lilly by the way, and had to end up scrapping everything I wrote and started over. The result is a much better read, even though its short, it's a whopper! Enjoy and I will have another update soon! Clumsy!**

Hermione never knew just how amazing a shower could feel until she got back from their cave! She felt so wonderful as the water poured down on her body that she kept reaching up and tapping the showerhead with her wand to keep the water hot. As she showered she let all her stress go, the stress of taking care of Draco while he was injured, the stress of the whole situation with Draco, the stress of her job, the retreat all of it and she physically felt her muscles loosen and relax. She had promised Harry she'd go to dinner, just the two of them and she couldn't wait, she needed time with her best friend. That thought, happy though it was, brought her back to the present and she knew she had to get out and get ready so she sighed and turned the water off.

She was just drying off when there was a knock on the bathroom door, Draco told her Harry was here and waiting. She dried her hair with her wand and threw on a pink sundress and a pair of strappy sandals and left the bathroom.

When she saw Harry she squealed and ran to hug him. She grabbed his cheeks and then started checking him for injuries and satisfying herself that he was healed correctly. He laughed at her inspection. "Hermione, it was a deep cut across the middle of my back, Jenny was amazing really, she fixed me up in no time then she took care of gathering what we needed for the night and refused to let me help, almost exactly what you would have done." He reassured her.

"It is exactly what she did do." Draco piped in laughing. "I had a bit of an accident myself, broken ankle. Hermione handled it amazingly, took such gentle care of me." Hermione blushed deeply and tried to hide it by looking down.

Harry didn't miss it and made a mental note to talk to her about it as soon as they were at dinner. "Well, if you're ready, how bout we head out?" He suggested.

"Bye Draco, see you later." Hermione said, and smiled at him.

Raising an eyebrow Harry held the door open for her. When it shut behind him he decided now was a good time. "What was up back there? There was definitely some energy happening between the two of you, I could feel it in the air Hermione."

"I don't exactly know Harry, I'm so confused. I mean, it's Malfoy, right! Only, it's not. Well it is, but he's not who we used to know, he's changed, like if we'd all met now instead of then, we'd all be really good friends, or even more." Hermione spoke very fast, waiting for his reaction.

"I know he's changed 'Mione, I've been telling you this for ages, you refused to listen. I still didn't expect you and him to hit it off this well, what happened during our little camping expedition between you two exactly? Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna kidnap Kingsley when we get back and make him do that fun little camp out exercise!" He grumbled.

Hermione cracked up, laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. "Draco and I spent many hours over the last few days thinking up and discarding many plans for the same thing."

"He is going to answer for that little exercise, I promise." Harry laughed.

They reached the main building and went to the lounge and ordered drinks when they were seated. Harry had a firewhiskey and Hermione ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri. They both ordered steak and baked potato, and Hermione asked for asparagus with hers.

"Harry, I need to tell you something else about Draco." Hermione said quietly. She seemed nervous to Harry, so he leaned forward and covered her hand that was on the table.

"You can tell me anything 'Mione, you know that. You don't have to be embarrassed." Harry assured her.

"Alright, it seems that he and I have feelings for each other, that aren't strictly friendly in nature. He said he'd try to be my friend, but he wasn't sure it would be enough for him. Aww Harry, he opened up while we were out there, and the more he did, the more I wanted to know him. It's gotten stronger as time passes. I don't know what to do about it either." She confessed afraid of Harry's reaction, she looked pleadingly into his green eyes she loved.

"Well, Gin and you are the ones that usually handle these kinds of problems, because we both know I'm rubbish at them. But, I will try to help since you're asking for advice." Harry said.

She looked at him closely, looking for any sign that he was disgusted or angry at her, but was surprised when she found none. She furrowed her brows and looked at him.

He laughed, "Expecting a different reaction to your confession?"

"Umm, duh!" she teased back.

"Okay, here's how I personally see it. Go with your feelings 'Mione because your instincts are usually spot on. If you feel the change in him, and your pulled into deeper feelings, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you felt this for some guy you met at work, or at the market you wouldn't think twice." He told her.

"Yes Harry, but he _isn't _just someone I met somewhere, it's Malfoy and there is history."

"Good point. I think sometimes we have to let ourselves forget the past, well not forget really, more like let it go so we can move forward. I made peace and became friendly with Draco and Blaise a long time ago. I trust both of them with my life. If I needed back up on the job, they are two of the first one's I would call to have my back." Harry said, pausing so she could take it all in.

"I know that isn't what you were expecting to hear, and this next statement will blow you away even more. Before Ron moved to head up the American Aurors, he made friends with them as well, but he was afraid it would hurt you if he told you. So was I to be honest, which is why we neither of us said anything." He confessed to her.

"Harry, you both should have told me, I would have dealt with it. We've always been honest with each other." She whispered feeling hurt.

"You are absolutely right 'Mione, but after what happened to you, we didn't want to add more stress when you were trying to heal mentally." He told her completely honest.

"Okay, but talk to me from now on, alright?" She asked.

"You bet. Now, let's get back to what we were talking about. Personally, I have always thought Malfoy would be a good match for you based on personality, intelligence, humor and work ethics. Just had that tiny blood status issue to get out of the way." He said laughingly and she laughed right along with him feeling much more comfortable and not because of the two Daiquiris's either.

"He let all of that go, and for the last two years Ron and Blaise and I have been trying to figure out a way to get the two of you together to see if something would develop between you to be honest. We just haven't been able to come up with a fool proof idea, or we would have done it long ago." He said and she gasped.

"Oh, Harry! I have been torturing myself wondering if I should just let it go, not wanting to lose my friends and family!" She accused. "If you would have told me all of this a long time ago, it would have saved me a whole lot of heartache!"

He had the good grace to look uncomfortable. "I won't apologize for trying to take care of you, or watch out for you, so don't expect one. I won't be the one to open old wounds if I can help it. Not after everything you stood by me through."

"I'm sorry, Harry. I love you, you goof ball. Just next time, talk to me, okay."

He smiled and everything was okay again, and he had cleared up most of her worries in one conversation. They moved on to him and Jennifer and how their experience went.

"Ginny will have Kingsley's ass when she finds out that you were required to spend that many nights alone with Jenny, no matter how much she trusts you." Hermione laughed at him.

"Oh I know, she'll have mine too. Not looking forward to the telling to tell the truth." He started squirming.

"Do it fast, like a band aid and maybe it'll hurt less" she laughed at him. He rolled his eyes at her.

"So, when was the last you heard from Ron?" Harry asked her.

"He called my house before I left to come here, to give moral support. The conversation makes more sense now that we just had that conversation." She said. "He told me to be open to Malfoy, and to let myself have fun."

"Yep, he's smooth. Don't know how he landed Luna with tact that clever." Harry shook his head laughing.

They left the lounge around ten o'clock and headed back to Hermione's bungalow, when they got there she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you Harry, you've gotten good at advice. With my parent's both gone it's usually Gin or Molly I go to, and I'm not sure I would have had the guts to face Molly Weasley with this one." She said very seriously.

"You're welcome, now go in there and tell him how you feel. Don't worry about what any of us will think Hermione, we all just want you to be happy. If he does that for you, everyone will come around, and especially don't worry about Ginny, she was bursting with joy when she found out the two of you were partnered up." He said and her mouth dropped.

Harry just laughed at her and gave her a nudge towards the door and made sure she was in before turning to walk away.

When Hermione shut the door she looked around and Draco wasn't there. So she checked the rest of the bungalow, and he wasn't anywhere. She decided to walk down the path that lead to the beach, maybe he went to spend time by the water since he loved it as much as she did.

She came to the opening and found him like she thought she would, but she developed a major case of nerves about what she was about to do. Draco's back was to her and she admired the way he looked in the moonlight for a minute, until he felt her eyes and turned.

"Hermione…." He started, but that is all he got out. Hermione walked straight up to him and without stopping to think any more about it she reached her arms around his neck and with one hand brought his head down and kissed him. He pulled her the rest of the way into him and took over growling low in his throat.

Draco brought his hands up to cup her cheeks as he ended the kiss so that they both got some air. "What brought this on Hermione? Not that I'm complaining, I just want to know where we stand."

"We stand right here Draco, the past is gone now. I just want you and me, the way we are today. Who we were and what we were is gone, and I want to move forward with you and give us a try. I don't know where it will lead us; I just know that I want to find out. If you do, that is." She said shyly.

"Are you crazy woman? Of course I want this; I've wanted this for forever!" He said, and then she was in his arms again. After a good long snogging session they held each other just watching the moonlight and the water while she snuggled in his chest with his arms around her.

She was happier that she had been in what felt like forever.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I don't know the results from my sons MRI until next week, but I decided to get my mind off of it and give you all a new chapter! Thanks for the well wishes and prayers, they are immeasurably appreciated. Ok, I've kept you waiting long enough, enjoy! Clumsy.**

**AN2: Oh yeah, just an aside, the task mentioned below with the ropes, I did at summer camp in high school, just without the big drop, ours was three feet, but I still cracked two ribs when I bounced off the ropes and fell to the ground lol.**

The weeks had passed much quicker than any of them had thought possible and the crazy thing about it was that the whole thing worked. Kingsley's head was going to get so big and they were all dreading the meeting with him Monday for that reason! Today was their last full day and night and this time they were all travelling home together, as friends. Or more than friends in half the pairs, Hermione and Draco had come together and begun dating as had Chloe Burns and Shawn Davis. Blaise and Stella seemed to be flirtier than mere partners would be, really the only two that seemed completely platonic were Harry and Jenny due to the fact that Harry was mad about his wife Ginny and Jenny had a guy she had been seeing pretty regularly for a few months before the retreat.

They were all currently in the beginning stage of their last challenge, which would decide the winning team. Hermione/Draco were tied for first with Blaise/Stella and whichever team won gets a free five day trip back here to the vacation part of the island, as opposed to the retreat part. This also happened to be the most ludicrously dangerous task, and looking back and forth between Draco and the task Hermione said, "I think I would rather do the waltz with Voldemort than go forward with this! I can't do it Draco, I just can't."

Draco looked into her terror filled eyes and didn't want to say he was scared as well, he doubted he'd get her anywhere near it if he told her that.

So, "I know you're scared, but I believe you can do this. When you feel like you have to quit we'll stop and rest. Keep telling yourself how beautiful and relaxing the other side of the island is, and we will beat those two!" he said instead.

"Fine, but if I fall to my death, I'm coming back to kill you!" Hermione retorted.

The task today was a timed project and the team with the best time won, that simple. The slightly problematic part was the actual task which easily doubled the danger of any task before. There were two long ropes that covered the distance between two cliffs which separated the vacation area of the island from the retreat area. Each team was given three boards, which they had to use to get all the way across. If they fell there was a wizard two hundred feet down below to cushion the fall, but Hermione would rather not go through that thank you very much!

"Ok, so here's what I think we should do, I think we place a board down and I will stand on it, then you hand me another board and I will place it down and step forward, and you step on the board I was on, then grab the last board and hand it forward, and we keep repeating until we reach the other side." Draco said. He was watching Harry and Jenny get across the same way the other two teams had crossed and he saw a way to speed it up and make it a bit safer than what the other teams had done. They were really only using two boards each, they would both stand on one, and move the other board forward. Stella and Shawn had both fallen using this technique and yet Harry and Jenny still followed along with the same way.

Hermione saw what he was saying in her mind, and it DID seem safer, so what the hell. "Ok, but if I start to fall, I'm taking you with me!" She grumbled, making him laugh and hug her.

Harry and Jenny finally made it over, and with the other two teams suffering a fall all Draco and Hermione had to do to win the vacation was finish in less than an hour, or Harry/Jenny would win.

Draco grabbed two boards and walked forward; he placed the first board and stepped on then laid the next board and stepped over to it. Hermione was actually crying nervous tears she had to wipe away so she could see. This was all about trust, if you didn't have complete trust in your partner there was no way across. She looked at Draco pleadingly and he smiled, "I know you can do this, just like the cliff climb, I won't let you fall, even if it means I take the fall myself." He promised.

She took a huge breath, stiffened her shoulders and raised her chin, "Neither one of us will fall." She said firmly, trying to convince herself. She took the first step onto the board. They repeated the process over and over, but when they reached the halfway point she stumbled and reached for him, and for a moment he thought they would both fall. She got herself settled and had two fistfuls of his shirt as he balanced with one knee on his board and a foot on one rope and both hands around the other rope. He would have fallen, but this time she saved him much like he had done for her.

"You jump, I jump, Jack," she joked. Draco was so confused; he looked at her questioning her sanity!

"First, I'm not Jack, I'm Draco. Secondly, you want us to jump? Are you mad?" He exclaimed.

"Sorry, Muggle thing. You come to my flat for dinner tomorrow, and I will show you what it means." She laughed. "Now, let's get this show on the road!"

He wasn't convinced of her sanity yet, but he wanted to plant his feet on solid ground, so he slowly and carefully worked his way back to his board and a standing position. Once he was standing, he kissed her lips as she handed him the next board. They started making their way across again, and fifteen minutes later, they had done it! She screamed and jumped in his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist and they fell to the ground and laughed.

The other teams were smiling and congratulated the two of them. They were all planning to meet in the main lounge for dinner and drinks to celebrate the successful completion of the adrenaline fuelled retreat.

Rich walked up to them and patted them both on the back. "Hermione and Draco you will receive two free passes each for the five day vacation at departure time, congratulations to you both. Also, as congratulations to each team for completion, you will all receive two free passes each for a weekend getaway to our island." They all applauded each other and turned to walk to the golf carts that would return them back to their area so they could all get ready for the celebration dinner.

Hermione was putting the finishing touches on her hair, which she had done in a French twist style. She then went to her room and got dressed. She had chosen to wear a simple black summer dress. It was spaghetti strapped and flowed freely to about an inch above her knee. She put on her black heels, and put on a few chunky bracelets and grabbed her clutch bag and walked out to the shared living room to meet Draco.

Draco was pacing, wondering why women needed so much time to get ready. He finally gave up and threw himself down on the couch and grabbed the book on Ancient Egyptian magicians he had laid down on the end table last night and read while he waited. When he heard her open the door he said, "Finally!" without looking up. When he did look up he froze halfway through standing up from the couch in a sort of crouch and said, "Whoa!"

"You look amazing." Draco said stunned, after he finally remembered to finish standing up.

Hermione blushed, "Thank you, and you look pretty good yourself."

Draco held his arm out and said, "Shall we?"

When they had all gathered and were eating their dinner they took turns telling funny stories of each one's encounters here on the island. Blaise had tears rolling down his cheeks as he told a story about Stella on their week long 'camping trip' that had her glowering.

"So I am sitting under the shelter we had built and I hear this bone chilling scream, and I grabbed my wand and took off running. I couldn't find her for the longest time, so I called out, "Stella!" and she screamed my name, so I look over and up, she is halfway up a tree screaming bloody murder."

Harry was smiling and asked, "Why?"

Blaise answered, "Because there was a _very_ deadly bunny rabbit at the bottom of the tree! She faces down Death Eaters, and fights criminals every day for a living, but a sweet little bunny made her fly up a tree!" They all had fun laughing at her bunny fear.

"Oh shut it Blaise, or I'll tell them how you couldn't sleep without your teddy bear!" Stella retaliated.

Everyone lost it at the image of Blaise and a teddy. "That's bang out of order Stella! Want me to stun a little old lady so you can kick her when she's down too?" but he was teasing, and taking the ribbing good naturedly. Blaise was like Fred and George that way. They had all discovered he had been Slytherin House's clown while in school, and it was unusual to see his face without his signature grin.

Draco told the scorpion story to much laughter as they each continued drinking. Not long after they finished they all hit the dance floor and switched partners after each song was over. When it was Blaise and Hermione's turn to dance together he maneuvered them as far away from Draco as he could.

"I wanted to talk to you about Draco." He began.

"Ok."

"If you're playing a game, and before you get all riled up with that temper of yours finish hearing me out," he said when she opened her mouth to argue.

"If you're playing a game with him, let me warn you, DON'T." he said.

"I am not, nor have I ever played with someone's emotions, Blaise Zabini!" Hermione retorted hotly.

"Good, because you have no idea what he's been through. It's easy to close your eyes to the pain of an enemy, but he suffered through the war, and he's suffered since. He may not ever tell you all of it, because he's not one who easily opens up, but I will tell you that some of what happened to him would send a chill up your spine." He said seriously and sadly.

"I am not trying to scare you off, nor is it my place. But he is the best friend I have, and you could hurt him more than you know, so please think about it before you let things get too serious." He finished rather earnestly.

Hermione nodded her head to let him know she understood right as Draco walked up and asked if she was ready to head back because they all had to be up early the next morning to catch a seven o'clock port key. They all said good night and went their separate ways. Hermione lay in bed that night thinking about all that Blaise had said and weighed in her mind if she was up to dating Draco when she had her own demons to fight. It would be a long time before she fell asleep that night, but when she did, her mind was made up.

**AN3: Ok, so it's a short chapter, but since I didn't think I would be good to write another one for a few days, I figure short is better than none at all! Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget that I LOVE reviews!**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: So Happy Mother's Day to all my readers that it applies too! Here is my gift to you! So it's time for the group to head back to the real world and find out about Kingsley's plans. Wonder how they will react?**

One month ago the group had sat in this room at the table divided by more than the table, but today they were one group instead of two, and they were mingled together in their pairs when Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic, walked in with a smile lighting up his face when he saw them.

"Well I see the retreat and the month away from work did the trick! Of course I received regular updates from Lightbridge Island, but it's wonderful to see it with my own eyes!" He told the group.

"You got lucky Kingsley; we were just as likely to kill each other as come together." Harry told him rolling his eyes at his old friend.

"I was fairly confident of this outcome before I sent you off Potter! Now, I am going to be joined by the new Head of Magical Law, he's a fellow Order of the Phoenix member who worked tirelessly, and at great personal risk to bring down Voldemort and the Death Eaters. He started a few weeks ago while you were all on retreat and he shares my vision of where this department can go, and the changes we're making."

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Ah here he is now, come in." Kingsley said.

In walked Bill Weasley with a grin aimed at Harry and Hermione who cried out and jumped out of her seat to give him a hug. He walked around the table shaking hands with each person before taking his own seat.

"Bill you got here just in time, I was about to tell them the changes we've made that will affect them." Kingsley said to Bill.

"Ah, should I do the honors, or would you rather tell them?" Bill asked.

"No, no you go ahead." Kingsley said laughing.

"Alright, well as you all know you were paired off for the retreat in order to make peace with the person you were paired with hopefully and everyone else in your group secondly. There is a very good reason for this because from now on your new partner is the person you were with in retreat. We are combining the Aurors and Crime Scene Investigators into one department. There will be three groups that will work together and each group is broken down into partners containing one Auror and one Investigator. As you can probably guess you are all in the first group, Team 1." Bill announced.

Looking around Bill and Kingsley could read the shock on all the faces but two.

"Ah Hermione, I figured you would tell Draco if for no other reason than getting him to work with you to stop me partnering you two." Kingsley laughed. Hermione blushed brightly.

"Hmm, well I might have had a plan or two that we decided to work together on, but instead we bonded pretty well, actually." She admitted honestly.

"Precisely my hope when I told you." He answered cunningly with a smirk.

"Well as I was saying," Bill started again smiling at the two of them. "Team 1 will help take up the slack while the next group takes their month on the Island, and after that group returns as Team 2, the third and final group will leave and return as Team 3. Your workload will then lighten slightly as we will then have all three teams and 12 paired partner's full time. The eight of you were chosen for Team 1 because you will work the most difficult and brutal cases as the elite team. If one of you chooses to leave you can only be replaced by someone from Team 2, nobody can join the elite team from the outside as they may with the other two teams and they must work on Team 2 for a minimum of five years in order to be considered for a position on Team 1. In order to remain a cohesive group we will have weekly Team meetings on Friday morning, and once a month we will have a department meeting with all teams. These meetings will be an opportunity to discuss cases and get outside opinions, although you may ask outside the meetings I would prefer that you inform me if you go to another team for an opinion outside of the meeting to ensure a chain of information in the case of leaks. Does anyone have questions?" Bill finished.

"What happens if one half of a partnership is injured, what does the other person do, work alone?" Chloe asked.

"No, you're never to work without a partner. I will replace the injured party, or someone I assign as a temporary partner will take their place." Bill answered. "Should that happen Kingsley and I have made a list of Order members we know can do the job and be trusted to step in. We do know that chances of injury in this group are high being that it's the elite group, however we can always hope for the best." Bill answered.

Kingsley spoke now, "If any of you want to decline your position please see me after the meeting, and we can then choose a new partner for your current one. However, don't come asking to remain on the elite team or another team but get a new partner because you were paired off with each person for a reason. Each partnership has a special ability they bring to the Team as a whole. Draco and Hermione are two of the most intelligent and gifted people in the department, and will bring much insight together. Harry and Jennifer are both known for their daring and bravery, Blaise and Stella are cunning and have a way of getting answers which has its benefits, and finally Shawn and Chloe are personable and friendly and can get answers and confessions from criminals where others cannot. If you choose to not be a part of the new teams and partnerships I will gladly refer you to another department if there is an opening, if not your employment at the Ministry will end." He explained while looking all around at each person.

"I have a couple questions if you don't mind." Hermione said making both Draco and Harry smile a little.

"I would be very surprised if you didn't." Bill laughed good naturedly.

"Well I noticed we're all paired into male/female partnerships, I wondered why." She asked.

"That is simply coincidence in this Team. You will find with the other teams that this isn't the case. For the elite team we simply had more qualified females than the other teams." Bill responded to her first question.

"Okay I have another question that I'm sure the other females here have had as well. What happens if one of us becomes pregnant? If your description of the cases we will work on is accurate, then I'm sure Birthing Healers at St. Mungo's will not allow us to work the cases." She asked seeing the other females nodding, confirming that they had thought of this as well.

Kingsley stepped in to answer this one. "In the case of pregnancy, you're correct you will not be allowed to work the cases here. You will take a leave of absence from work, fully paid and your partner will be assigned a temporary partner until you return after the Healer you choose releases you back to work."

"Hermione's questions also lead to another issue we must discuss of a personal nature. When the elite team was being chosen and put together we understood there were reasons you would make good partners, we also saw that it could lead to each of you finding there was more in common than mere comradeship. We have heard rumors that more than one pair here did get together in a romantic sense on the island." As Bill said this Hermione could tell she wasn't the only one feeling their cheeks get hot.

"While this isn't strictly prohibited, it is discouraged. There will be no tolerance for personal problems interfering with your job. So if you are personally involved, leave it at the door of the Ministry or disciplinary action will be taken. You may not let said relationship interfere with an investigation either, each partnership is made up of two people who bring different gifts to the job. Each person who works this job does so knowing full well that it's dangerous and if you're too busy trying to protect the other, both can be hurt. Are there any more questions?" Bill asked.

When nobody raised another question Kingsley excused himself from the meeting to return to his office and continue working and Bill pulled out two files.

"Alright then we should move along, I have two cases here and we need to get on these cases immediately. The first is a murder of three Muggles by a wizard or wizards unknown, it occurred sometime after midnight and a team of obliviators are on scene now taking care of witnesses and police officers and clearing the way for your entry. If there are eye witnesses to the crime, they will be held back and their memories will not be altered until you say it's time. The other case is just as disturbing although no murder was committed. There have been a growing number of rapes and assaults on witches, and based on who the witches are we've come to the conclusion that it is a serial rapist. The victims are all within two years of each other's age, all attended Hogwart's at the same time, all are Pureblood's, and most are from Slytherin House although there are victims that were in other houses. These are particularly brutal assaults and each one gets more violent, we need to catch the perpetrator quickly." He described to the group. "Now for the homicide I want Harry/Jennifer, Shawn/Chloe and for the rape cases Hermione/Draco, and Blaise/Stella. You should all return to your new offices, there is one office per team since you get the cases we don't want overheard. The other teams will have the cubicles you're used to. As I was saying, find your offices and get with the other partnership I suggested for your case and go over them together. The homicide team must do this quickly and be ready to go when an obliviator contacts you. The rape case I would like for you to take most of today to thoroughly review each victim's case, and there are twelve so far, discuss it together and be ready to interview victim's and follow leads beginning tomorrow. We will meet again Friday to discuss the cases and any new one's that come up and catch up on progress made."

With that they were dismissed and walked back to their department together and found their offices. When Draco and Hermione found theirs, it was the last in the row and they were pleasantly surprised to find it was a corner office with very large windows on the two outside walls. The view of a lovely spring day wasn't real as they were underground it was just magic provided by the maintenance department. It was wonderful just the same though. Against one of the windows was a huge two person desk that looked like a big T. They each walked to their side of it and set down their belongings. The floor was a dark brown carpet and the walls were white until Hermione tapped each one turning them light mint green and Draco turned the carpet black and added a black border to the walls. Over a little ways from the desk was a conference size table they assumed would be used for collaboration amongst the team. They were setting up their own desks when Blaise and Stella walked in, knocking on the door frame.

"Wow, ours isn't nearly this big! Although you have the only office with the table which will make it less private so I really don't mind that." Blaise joked.

Stella on the other hand was clearly impressed with the way they had decorated already since she and Blaise still had white walls and brown carpet only, especially when she found out that they didn't even need to discuss it, just liked what the other added to the room.

"Okay then, I say we head to the table and open the files and each grab a couple cases at a time to read and then hand them to the person on the right of you until we've all read each case. Does that work for everybody?" Hermione suggested.

When nobody seemed to object they headed to the table and dug into the files. Two hours later Draco and Blaise left to get Pizza and salads for lunch when they all decided to work through the meal to continue reading the case files. They did pause long enough to eat and talk, just not about what they were reading. When they were finished they dove back in the files and continued reading, becoming progressively more disturbed by what they had to read. By the time they were finished it was nine o'clock in the evening. They decided to eat dinner together and grabbed take out and Hermione side along apparated all three to her house on the outskirts of London. The case was brought up a few times but mostly they tried to leave it at the office tonight, and then Blaise and Stella and Draco began leaving. Draco kissed her before he left and told her he'd see her tomorrow and then he was gone.

Hermione decided to take a bath and go to bed so that she would be well rested as they began the hunt for the rapist tomorrow.

**AN: Alright folks, as you can see this is going to get a bit dark for a while. However, I will not ever write a rape scene unfolding so don't worry about that. Plus you know that I always add a touch of darkness and a touch of light, so there will be a lighter/happier story happening as well. Read and Review please! It's that new blue button down there, yep that's the one! Clumsy!**


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Blaise, Stella, Draco and Hermione were found in the same office as last night, now talking out everything they had read, and ideas that had leapt out at them.

"So here were my first thoughts; sadly the only Hogwarts House that doesn't have a victim is my own. Gryffindor's have somehow not been touched. The second thing is the fact that we all probably know the perpetrator, and I will possibly definitely know him well." Hermione said sadly, it was a physical pain for her to think one of her schoolmates and friends was responsible for what was happening.

"I agree, I think there is a connection." Blaise said softly. "Hermione, I hate to say this, but as a female Gryff you might have information that you're unaware of having."

She just stared at him, knowing what he was going to ask of her and dreading it.

"Somebody else can do it. There's Ginny, Parvati, Lavender, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, lots of others who could do it." She almost begged them, and Draco felt her pain and reached out to lend her strength.

"'Mione, you're right there are other girls but you weren't known as the Gryffindor Princess for no reason. You knew all of them personally or at least enough that they thought they knew you personally." Draco answered. She just looked up at him with those big brown eyes of hers and finally nodded.

She took her seat and invited them to begin the questions.

Stella asked, "Hermione, how about we start at the very basic, was there a bully in Gryffindor while you were there?"

Hermione took her time answering because she was loyal to her housemates even after all this time; it was a characteristic that made her fit there. She also knew that she had a responsibility to the victims if she did know who he was.

"There were very few actually from my point of view, sorry guys, but it was the Slytherin's that we were mostly watching out for. I'm not trying to bring up old grudges, I just only know one Gryffindor that maybe, might fit the profile but it isn't him" Hermione said when she saw Draco and Blaise tense up when she brought up their own house. She rubbed her fingers up and down her forehead trying to rub out a budding headache.

"How can you know it isn't him?" Stella asked calmly, giving the other two a silent warning to back off.

"Stell if you saw the guy you would know why, he's enormous and his size would have been the first thing the victims discussed. Cormac was so big he hardly fit through doorframes." Hermione said at first, but there was hesitation at the end of her sentence as remembrances of hiding from him during a party snuck into her head. The guys were trained to notice those changes in tone and body language, being Aurors.

Draco spoke finally. "There's something you're not saying, and Hermione personal things are left at the door, so I will remind you that I am a Ministry Auror investigating multiple violent crimes. If you're withholding pertinent information you could be in trouble." Hermione looked at him like he'd just smacked her.

"Draco Malfoy, you listen to me you little ferret! I am investigating the same damn crimes and how dare you suggest that I would protect a RAPIST?" She was yelling now. "The hesitation was because of a memory that hit at the end of my sentence damn you. Now if you want the information I will talk to Blaise and I will talk to Stella but until you get the fuck out of here, I'm not saying one more word!" She pointed at the door while yelling at him. They were toe to toe, in each other's faces. He threw up his hands and slammed the door as he left.

Blaise opened his mouth to say something but Hermione beat him to it. "Blaise, do not defend the way he just treated me or you won't hear this firsthand either." She looked right at him, brown eyes to brown eyes, and he nodded.

"Ok, why don't you tell us the memory that made it appear that you were reluctant to name someone." He said instead.

"Do you remember Cormac McLaggen? Big, big guy kinda looked like he's related to Hagrid by the size of him?" Hermione asked, and Blaise scrunched up his eyebrows, it was familiar and he couldn't place it.

"Something is ringing a bell 'Mione, but damned if I can put a face to him." Blaise answered honestly.

"Slug Club." Was all Hermione had to say and his eyes lit up with recognition.

"He was huge, I can see where you're coming from now, it would be a tell-tale feature." He agreed. "So what is the catch? Why the hesitation?"

"Because, remember that Christmas party in sixth year?" He nodded for her to continue, "Well Ron and I were supposed to go together but we had a major falling out over Lavender Brown. So I wanted to make him jealous and Cormac annoyed him the most, he hated the guy. So I asked Cormac to be my date for the party and man did I regret it. I couldn't keep him off me; I even went to the extreme of eating foods to give me bad breath! Finally Harry distracted him so I could leave and get back to the common room and I just remember that being one of the first times I felt vulnerable because I was a smaller female to this huge guy."

She took a deep breath, "See I have magic to protect myself, but when it's a wizard who is also intelligent and strong it evens the field. He could definitely do damage to me physically and I was more than a touch scared. Luckily Malfoy got caught gate crashing and that distracted him and I got away and Harry stayed with me for a few weeks so I wasn't alone with him again. The problem is that while that fits some red flags and early warning signs, you still can't get past the fact that his size would have been the first thing mentioned."

"I see what you mean. It's confusing isn't it? Was there anyone else you can think of that showed aggression toward females in your house?" Blaise asked.

"Honestly, no." She said simply. "There are only two other's that were bullying thugs to us, and one of them isn't the rapist beyond a shadow of a doubt."

Stella leaned forward thinking they were getting somewhere, "Okay, so who's the innocent one, and who isn't?

"The one who is innocent just walked out that door, and the one that was horrible to us was Zacharias Smith but he was a Hufflepuff. Susan Bones is one of the victims and she was in his house." She got up and started pacing. "I need to go find Draco, can we pick this back up in a few minutes?"

Blaise and Stella agreed and went to go find out what information they could dig up on McLaggen and Smith while she was gone.

Hermione walked down the hall and was opening the exit to the stairway to leave when she smacked right into Harry. She let out a cry and threw her arms around his waist and started shaking, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her out to the stairwell.

"What's going on Hermione?" He asked in a caring but urgent way.

"Not here, let's go up to the roof." She told him and turned and led the way.

When they got there they found it was already occupied. Draco turned around when he heard the roof access door open.

"Draco I was just coming to look for you when I literally ran into Harry. Please, I need you to listen to me okay?" When he nodded, she smiled shakily.

"Harry, you know we got the rape case. Well it turns out there is only one house that doesn't have a victim, ours. So they were asking routine questions and I remembered the night of old Sluggy's Christmas party." She started trembling again and Harry began to reach out, but Draco beat him to it. Harry hid his smile at the clear message being sent his way.

"I won't pretend to understand what you are talking about, but I would never intentionally hurt you like this Hermione." Draco soothed. She smiled wearily and leaned into his warmth.

"Cormac McLaggen happened to her that night Draco. He got a bit out of line and didn't like to take no for an answer. He followed her for a few weeks until Ron, and I used magic to make him back off, but it was a scary time for Hermione. But I doubt he's your guy, you'd know immediately if he was, he's obvious in a Hagrid sort of way.

After another twenty minutes talking the three of them headed back to work, Hermione hugged Harry when they went their separate ways. She walked back with Draco glad that they had settled things. When they got back into the room however they were in for a shock.

"We think we may have something with Smith. When we looked up what he's been doing since school there were more than a few violent assaults and one attempted rape. Stella and I thought we would go talk with him and that maybe the two of you could go talk to Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. Susan is one of our victims and Hannah was the attempt." Blaise told them quickly. "Oh, and Hermione? You were right about McLaggen he's not our guy because he's been in Azkaban for the last five years for the use of an Unforgivable."

Hermione said hurriedly, "Go, we're on it."

They sent a Patronus to Susan that they were coming to see her, and since she and Hermione were friends when they apparated to her front yard she met them on the porch. She looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion.

"It's okay Susan he isn't the same prat we knew in school." Hermione smiled at her. Draco smiled too and Susan relaxed.

"What can I help you with 'Mione?" Susan asked shyly. She was always a bit introverted the whole time Hermione had known her, but once you broke through the shell she was the sweetest, gentlest person Hermione knew, that made the fact she'd been violated by this monster even more awful.

"We're here on official business Suse. It's about your attacker, would you mind talking with me and Draco about what happened?" She asked gently.

"I guess if you think it's important." She answered clearly frightened but trying to be brave.

"I know you've probably been through this over and over, and I am not here to make you relive that night wholly. I've read the file; I just wanted to know if anything in particular stood out? His size, his voice, was there a scent you were familiar with?" Draco asked calmly.

"He was medium build, nothing that would stand out in a crowd. There was something to the voice, like I should know it, but I just can't place it. That part has been haunting me as well. I am pretty sure that I know the person but as soon as I heard him approach he automatically had me blindfolded and disarmed. It all happened so fast, and then it was over and he said 'Sweet Dreams Princess' and then he was gone." Susan started crying.

"If you didn't see him," Hermione asked delicately, "then how do you know he's medium build Susan?"

"I could feel him. I don't want to talk about this anymore Hermione." She cried.

Hermione hugged her friend and held her until she was cried out while Draco discreetly left the porch and walked down the block some to give the ladies privacy. The interview part was over, right now it was one friend reaching out to another friend in need. He really wanted to catch the bastard that did that to all these girls and not the least of all because Pansy was one of the victims. This guy was hitting them all close to home and he was angry.

"I think we should go talk to Pansy before we talk to Hannah. Pans is one of the victims and might be able to help narrow things down." Draco told Hermione when she walked up.

"You think her information will be different?"

"What I think is that Slytherin House is a very isolated house Hermione. The other houses will gladly unite against Slytherin without batting an eye, we tend to bond closely for that reason. If it is a Slytherin that is close to our year, she'll know him and that narrows the field by a fourth. Also I had another hunch that you won't like at all." Draco answered reluctantly.

When Hermione just looked at him he confessed, "I think it may have nothing to do with Houses, it could be about a certain group…."

TO BE CONTINUED!

**AN: Who's got guesses? I already have the rapist figured out, and the murderer on Harry's case as well. Alright get to guessing my wonderful sleuths! Oh and you should all fiddle around with that big blue button right below this authors note, see what it does lol. Hint, Hint. Clumsy!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: So sorry everyone, for this update taking so long and for what I have to do with it. I have had some bad news for my family and starting next week will once again be busy with doctors. My other story, The Other Trio is almost finished, so it will be finished fully. Give and Take wasn't finished however, so given that, I don't want it to be an unfinished story. I will now have to wrap it up in two chapters, so at least there will be a conclusion even if it is abrupt. I do apologize, but I mentally won't be able to give it justice after things start next week so this is the best I can give you. Once things settle down again for my family I have other stories that are going to be written. I hope you all will keep an eye open for them in the future. Clumsy.**

Hermione was quiet on the return trip to the office. They had just finished interviewing Pansy Parkinson, not her favorite person to begin with, and she'd been treated just as snidely as usual by her school nemesis. Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her into an alley.

"What's up, you're much quieter than usual after interviewing a victim? Draco said running a finger down her cheek softly.

"I don't know honestly. I have always hated that girl, but….I still felt sorry for her and I guess I just never thought I would." She answered hesitantly knowing he was close to Pansy.

He kissed her softly, "I understand, what she went through was rough. Now I want to say something to you because I don't want you to be caught off guard when I bring it up in a few minutes with Stella and Blaise."

"Okay."

"I had suspicions before talking to Pansy, but I wasn't going to mention it before in case I was wrong only because it's going to put your back up instantly." He said with a sigh. "After listening to her though I'm even more confident. I don't think this has to do with house at Hogwarts. I think it has to do with Dumbledore's Army actually."

Hermione gasped and pulled away from him. "What the hell!"

"Hear me out, please!" Draco said.

Hermione walked out of the alley to the small park across from where they were and continued to a secluded area and sat on a bench.

"Alright, what makes you think that? I will admit there are a few members who have been victims, but Pansy was the farthest from a member of the DA Draco." Hermione asked.

"I don't think the DA is the target Hermione, I think one of the members is the one guilty of these crimes. I also have suspicions that it is one of three members." He told her.

Hermione looked him in the eye for a second then started laughing, "Draco, I know every one of the DA members, there is no way any of them could do what you are suggesting."

"I want to have three of its members watched. Plus Hermione, I'm beginning to suspect you aren't safe either; you are the only person from that school I have ever heard referred to as princess. Each one of these victims the perpetrator said the same thing to, Sweet Dreams Princess." He said.

At her confused look he continued. "Pansy recognized the voice, but that it wasn't Slytherin. She said it was someone we had run in's with and that for some reason it reminded her of Quidditch. That narrows it down so much for us. We had most of our run in's with Gryffindor's and the DA and I don't think this is a Gryffindor either so that leaves the DA."

As much as Hermione wanted to argue with him that none of the DA could possibly do these things she had to admit his reasoning made sense. Though animosity with Slytherin was a school wide feeling, it really was Slytherin and Gryffindor that had run in's, the other houses staying as far from them as possible. Only a few instances stood out in her mind with conflict coming in the way of the other two houses and Slytherin. So if you take house out of the equation, it makes sense to look at the DA which had quite a lot of trouble with that house.

"Okay Draco, I will try keeping an open mind, who are the three you suspect, maybe I can narrow it further, but I doubt this is about me." She finally spoke.

"Well, we need more than one phrase to say it's about you, that's just something I started thinking about. I feel like we need to watch Ernie Macmillan, Terry Boot, and Zacharias Smith" At that final name something clicked for Hermione.

"Well, eliminate Ernie because he's too gently for this and had no affiliation with Quidditch. Terry and Smith both played for the House teams and Smith did commentary. Of the two, I'd suspect Smith because there's something not right with him. Nobody wanted him on the DA, he overheard some people talking and that is how he ended up one of us. He was usually hexed quite a bit in practices and everyone picked on him because he was such an ass." Hermione told him, then looking down at her watch she jumped up. "We have to be in the team meeting in five minutes Draco." They hurried back to the alley and disapparated back to the Ministry.

There wasn't time to meet with Stella and Blaise before the meeting, instead they ran for the conference room at the end of the hall and just made it to their seats before Bill called the meeting to order.

"Now that our final two members have decided to grace us with their presence I suggest we start." Bill said grumpily. "I would like to start with Harry, Jennifer, Shawn and Chloe. Have we made any progress?"

Jennifer cleared her throat and said, "Not as such, sir. We have had a fourth murder to deal with this week."

Harry continued. "They are all Muggle, all from roughly the same area of London, and all male." He passed out photographs to Hermione, Draco, Blaise, and Stella.

"We are trying to find any link between the victims and all we've been able to come up with is that they all attended the same school. They were all within the same two years and no more than a year apart in age. It sounds similar to the rape cases except that instead of rape, their murder victims." Chloe said.

Hermione finished listening before picking up the photos. She always hated looking at pictures of brutal crimes, her stomach never had gotten used to it even though she was frequently the one snapping the shots. When she looked down she couldn't even make a gasp as she felt all the blood drain from her face and watched the darkness fall over her eyes as her stomach clenched. She stood to run and grab the trash can to vomit, but fainted before she got two steps.

"I'm glad you caught her, Draco thanks." She heard Harry say although it sounded far away.

"What happened, do you think she's sick?" Draco sounded worried.

Harry answered again, "No, she's never done well with the gore she sees on the job. Reminds her of things she'd rather forget."

"Thanks Harry for keeping my secrets so well." She answered them as she opened her eyes. She groaned as she tried to sit up. They had lain her down on the floor of the conference room. Someone was shoving a glass of water in her hand.

"Drink it." Bill said worriedly.

"I'm fine, and in this instance Harry was wrong. That's not what was wrong, please let me up and I will show you what is wrong." Hermione said.

She was helped to her feet, and once everyone was seated she grabbed her pile of photos. She pulled out the first one and pointed to it saying, "His name is Brian Cooper. This is the scar I got when he pushed me down in 3rd grade." She pointed to a scar just next to her elbow. She held up the next one, "This is Eric Johnson and I had to have stitches above my eyebrow when he hit me because I wouldn't show him how to jump halfway up a tree in one jump. That one is Tommy Murphy, he sprained my ankle when he caught me turn a leaf to a butterfly. The last one is Sandy Bergman; he's the first boy to break my heart." By the time she was finished her hands were shaking and Bill, Draco, and Harry were all on their feet.

"Everyone out but Hermione and Harry, now!" Bill ordered. Everyone got to their feet and hurried out, except for Draco who refused to move.

"I'm not leaving Hermione." He said forcefully.

"We need to figure this out, what's the connection with Hermione and these murders?" Bill asked Harry.

"Correction, sir. Connection with Hermione with these murders, and the rapes." Draco said. Every eye turned to him. "We were late because I was explaining my theory to her. I think whoever the rapist is, he's got some morbid fixation on her, and I also believe he's a member of the group known as Dumbledore's Army."

Harry raised an eyebrow when he said this but Draco just held up a hand to finish. "I have narrowed it in my mind to three members."

For the next hour and a half Draco explained his theory to Bill and Harry. He went through his reasoning but could only tell them that his reasons for the three were just gut instinct. They all agreed that they needed more than gut instinct, but Harry and Hermione had agreed about Smith, so Bill agreed to have him followed for the time being. Hermione was immediately removed from both cases because they didn't want to give defense attorney ammunition by saying she was personally involved in the cases. They were just about to break up the meeting when Blaise ran in the door all blood having left his face.

"Sir, Harry, Hermione I don't know how to tell you this. There has been another rape, this time a Gryffindor. I am so sorry to tell you all this, but Ginny is in St. Mungo's." He sadly told them. They all left at a run.

Ginny's attack seemed to further them in the idea that this wasn't about House after all and that Draco was probably on to something. In the four hours they had been gathered in the waiting room at the hospital, Chloe and Shawn had been able to eliminate Ernie from the list of three, he had a rock solid alibi for every rape and three of the murders which left Terry Boot and Zacharias Smith.

Hermione felt guilty, if she was the reason this maniac was raping and murdering, then it was her fault Gin had been hurt. Draco left to get her a cup of tea and Bill came and sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. "I can see those cogs turning, and you're wrong you know."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She lied.

"It is no more you're fault than any of the victims, including Gin. You are a victim here as well. I thought I would come tell you I've had some information from everyone we put on the case. Once word got around that Ernie was being investigated, Smith packed up and disappeared. We've got all the Aurors and teams on alert. They'll find him." Bill said.

Before Hermione could answer Harry came back into the room, pale and tired and you could easily see he'd been crying. He walked over and wrapped his arms around Hermione, needing her and Ron who was on his way home.

He looked at the family gathered around him, "She's going to be okay physically. She was beaten pretty badly, she put up a major fight as you can imagine. She just lost the fight this time." He started crying again. He squeezed Hermione's hand for strength. "She is asleep for now; they gave her a dreamless sleep potion so she won't be plagued with nightmares. She'll be needing all of us for a while as she heals, they have given her options. She was offered counseling and the healers also offered to obliviate the memory once criminal proceedings are finished which is the option I hope she'll take, but she hasn't decided yet. If she chooses counseling, it will start next week. Molly, they said you are welcome to sit with her, but nobody else should be in there when Gin wakes up until she asks for you." He explained to her family and Molly turned and ran out of the room.

"Hermione, I don't want you returning to your house. Until further notice, I want you to stay at the Burrow because you won't ever be alone there. We weren't able to protect Ginny, but we won't see the same happen to our other little sister." Bill said. When she opened her mouth to disagree he held up a hand. "I can make it an order." Putting his foot down.

Draco escorted her home to pick up some belongings for her extended stay at the Weasley home. When they were finished he took her to the Burrow and promised to come see her every day and kissed her goodbye before heading back to work to find Smith and finish this.

After two weeks Hermione was restless and edgy, her daily walks were the only time she had to herself to think. She was also desperate to find who'd done these things to her friends, and with all the leads they had Terry Boot was cleared and Zacharias Smith damned by DNA for both the murders and the rapes. She just didn't understand how it was about her realistically. She'd not spent any time alone with him ever, rarely even talking to him when others were around.

Poor Gin was staying here as well while Harry worked as hard as Draco and Bill. She didn't blame Hermione for what happened to her and had decided that she'd rather do the counseling than have her memory tampered with no matter how horrible the memory was, it was hers and she'd rather learn to live with it in a healthy way than have it erased because she'd been too strong her entire life to accept any other option.

Ginny was taking a nap so Hermione left the garden to go for her daily walk. She was enjoying her solitude when she got the feeling she was being watched, and not in the sense of her family watching her for her safety. This felt altogether different, and invasive. When she turned around she couldn't see anyone, so she shrugged it off and continued. The next time she felt it she wasn't so lucky. As she turned around, she was hit by a full body bind curse before she could protect herself, and she looked up to see Zacharias Smith standing over her. She couldn't scream out as he picked her up and apparated them away.


	11. Chapter 11

Hermione may have been in the full body bind, but that didn't freeze her brain which starting working in overdrive. She wasn't called the brightest witch of the age for no reason and she was quickly coming up with a plan. She knew that Draco and Harry would be informed immediately that she had been taken because she never walked out of sight of the Aurors who were watching the Burrow.

Smith had taken her wand but that wand wasn't her only weapon, Hermione's brain was a powerful weapon and she would use it to its utmost capacity. She would try first to keep him talking and hopefully that would buy her enough time for the others to find her. Honestly, it shouldn't be hard considering all Aurors had tracking devices on their wands, and he had been idiotic enough to bring her to the shrieking shack which Hermione knew the full layout better than anyone.

When he threw her down she could start to feel the spell wearing off. "You certainly made me work hard enough to get to you didn't you Princess?" She realized he was starting to rant.

"Here I give you the best gift by killing those filthy Muggle men who hurt you, and did you thank me? No! Instead I had to punish you for your ungratefulness, but you weren't available were you?" He continued on insanely.

Hermione was sickened by this maniac! He had convinced himself he was giving her a prize by murdering boys who hurt her when they were children? Oh God, please Draco hurry was all she could think.

"Then I was taking care of all those Purebloods who talked about you during the DA meetings when you weren't paying attention. Pansy Parkinson was the most fun though. She deserved the most pain for the way she treated you, but did you praise me for all the work I did paying them back for you? Again no, you sided with the Bastard who taunted all of us and became his whore!" He turned to face her and his face was twisted with disgust.

Hermione rose to her feet thankful to be freed from the spell finally. She held her hands up in what she hoped was a pacifying gesture, "Zacharias, I don't understand any of this, why would you think I wanted you to do all these horrible things to innocent people?"

"Hermione, don't pretend! You knew I was in love with you, for years you kept me waiting. That was fine because I knew your career was important, but then you decided to play me! I'm no fool; you're just a bitch who needs to learn her place!" He started ranting again. "Except for Ginny, that was to pay back Potter for trying to humiliate me in front of you. The rest were gifts for you, Princess. To help you sleep better at night and help you get past the nightmares. I took care of all the people who hurt you, there are only two more, but I will get them soon and then we'll leave and be happy together."

"Listen to me please, I never meant to hurt you, I didn't even know you thought of me that way. I'm sorry that you felt I was leading you on, but you have to stop hurting people. Let me take you to the Ministry and it will go on your record that you turned yourself in, which will help you in your trial." She gave it her best try.

"Ministry and trial? I've done nothing wrong Hermione, they were the ones who hurt you and needed to be punished. Soon Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy will pay for what they did and we will be free to live our lives away from here." He answered crazily.

"I am not going anywhere with you, and I love Draco!" She said without thinking first and realized her mistake quickly when he flew at her slapping her to the floor.

_At the Ministry meanwhile…_

"Calm down mate, we'll find her. Hermione is smart and she'll handle it, she knows we'll find her so she'll bide her time." Harry said with a comforting hand on Draco's shoulder.

"I shouldn't have left her, how could I have done something so stupid?" Draco asked. He was in rough shape.

They had gotten the notice immediately when she was taken. The Aurors at the Burrow had fired of jinxes to stop Smith from taking Hermione but had missed, reporting the abduction straight away. They were waiting now for the tracking charm to show where she was. It took thirty minutes to take effect, so they would know any time now.

Sure enough the charm started pinging. Like a bomb went off they all gathered together and apparated not knowing where they would land.

"So simple it might've worked. I wouldn't have thought he'd be so stupid to bring her here!" Harry said.

"What are you on about?" Draco asked impatiently.

"What I'm on about is that by bringing Hermione to the Shrieking Shack he's made a critical and very telling error. She knows this place better than anyone considering she helped care for Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Ginny, Fred, Bill, Neville, Parvati Patil and many others here during our years at Hogwarts and during the war. This is where she saved Snape's life." He said. "By bringing her here he's revealed himself because this is where he also asked her out during our DA days when they came to Hogsmeade to get some supplies behind Umbridge's back. She declined, and he was very pissed off for a long time. We never thought much about it after that, but apparently he isn't over the rejection at all!"

Just then they heard Hermione scream out and both Harry and Draco had to be restrained from tearing in there half crazed.

"You won't be helping her by running in there halfcocked. We need to calm down and make a plan or you could get Hermione and yourselves killed. Remember he has no problem killing and won't hesitate to curse you." Bill swayed them to think clearly.

Hermione screamed out when he continued to hit her. She was bleeding from somewhere on her head because the blood was running down to her eyes and dripping off her face.

"Please, please stop! I promise we'll talk this out and come to an understanding." She begged. When he climbed off of her she tried to sit up and dizziness assaulted her. She gave herself a moment to steady herself before getting to her feet. She approached him from behind making the decision to disarm him manually because if she didn't do something soon she knew she was dead. She was losing too much blood to fast.

What happened next was so fast she almost didn't see it coming. She made a grab for the wand at the same time that the front door flew open. Smith grabbed her by the hair spinning her around in front of him with his wand that she failed to get from him pointed at her own throat instead.

"Make one move asshole and I promise I will not hesitate to kill this lying bitch." Smith growled.

"Just relax, we can talk about this. Hermione, are you alright?" Draco begged from the door with his wand still pointed at Smith.

"I'm going to be fine."

"Shut up! You don't deserve her; you're not the one who took revenge in her name! You didn't kill the people who hurt her! I did, she's mine now!" He ranted maniacally.

Draco however was pleased at his ranting because it kept his attention on Draco instead of Harry Potter who was climbing up through the tunnel under the floor. Draco decided to taunt him some more to make sure he kept his attention focused on himself.

"She'll never be yours Smith. I love her, and I'm pretty sure she's in love with me back. That means she's mine, and I don't share what's mine. So let her go before you make me do something you're going to regret. I won't regret it I assure you, I will take great pleasure in what happens to you." Draco said derisively. "Last chance prick, let her go!"

The rest happened in the blink of an eye. As Hermione was losing consciousness she told Draco she loved him and she was sorry. Harry sent a silent Stupefy from behind Smith's back and he fell on top of Hermione as Draco ran to catch her. He kicked Smith off of Hermione and apparated straight to St. Mungo's with tears running down his face. She had stopped breathing as she arrived at the hospital, and Draco cursed himself for being too late to save her.

"They told you mate, and I told you she's strong, she'll wake up. She's only resting from the blood loss and the shock." Harry tried to say to Draco who seemed to be deaf at the moment. His hair stuck out everywhere, and Harry had never seen him look so lost.

"She's my life now Potter, I will be nothing without her I can't lose her." Draco croaked out.

"Dude, she's gonna be fine. Harry and I have been through this with her same as she's been through it with us. We all received injuries in the war. She'll wake up moaning about how we should have done things." Ron encouraged. He had made it to the Ministry about the same time the others got back from her rescue and came straight away to the hospital to find out about her condition.

Hermione listened to the conversation taking place around her bedside. She smiled inwardly when she heard her second best friend next to her, but she needed to comfort the most important person in her life before she responded to Ron. So she squeezed the warm hand holding her own, she would always and forever know that touch from anyone else's.

Draco gasped. "Hermione! Wake up love, and talk to me please!"

She opened her eyes and found his beautiful face right above her. Reaching her hand up to his face she said, "You were right, I do love you."

**AN: That is the end of this story; I hope you enjoyed it even though it had to end sooner than planned. I have The Other Trio almost finished and will be updating that, and then taking the break I spoke of earlier. Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers. I also thank each of you for your understanding at this time. I promise to be back with more stories as soon as possible. Please don't forget, reviews make my day! Clumsy!**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Now that my son's health crisis is a little more settles, thank you for all the well wishes and prayers for his health, I went back to try to re edit the story and see if I could pick up and change it so that the way it was intentionally meant to be written could still be achieved, but I decided to let it stand as it is. However, I am adding this epilogue that I hope you'll enjoy because this is the part of the story I was most excited about and the story won't leave me alone until this part is written. It wasn't ever meant to be an epilogue, but I think it'll work out fine that way! Hope you enjoy! Clumsy!**

**Disclaimer: Yay! I owned them last night, but then I woke up, boo! JKR still has them, but I can live with it!**

_**Just under a year later….**_

Ginny was in the kitchen making dinner with Hermione's help, it was a very large group of people coming to dinner tonight to celebrate what was going to happen in a very little while.

"Are you sure Molly is alright with her part of the plan Ginny? I'm nervous she'll be upset with all of us." Hermione asked for the millionth time.

Ginny just sighed, "Hermione, we've been over this, and she's told you herself she's fine. She will do her job. They won't even know she's done it until it's already too late! Remember, this is the woman who raised Fred and George!"

Hermione gave a little laugh at that just as the door to the kitchen at Grimmauld Place opened and in walked the woman in question. She grabbed them both and hugged tightly.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun! How are my girls?" Molly Weasley exclaimed.

"Good mum." Ginny smiled.

"Nervous." Hermione confessed.

"Don't worry so much dear, I will play my part perfectly. I just want to be present when they find out what is happening to them!" Molly giggled. "They will be here any moment now, that's why I headed over a bit early. Harry sent me a message."

Half an hour later Hermione and Ginny sighed in relief when they heard Harry call down to them. Molly had spent that time grilling them about marriage and babies. Hermione got the wedding talk, poor Ginny had to endure the baby talk.

"Down here Harry!" Ginny answered.

Harry walked through the kitchen door with a smile on his face followed by Kingsley, Bill, Draco, Blaise, Shawn, Chloe, Stella, Jennifer, and Ron.

"Molly!" Kingsley said while he received a very big hug.

"Mum, good to see you." Bill said when he received the same.

Molly made the rounds hugging most, and shaking hands with those she was meeting for the first time. When she was finished, she did the rest of her job.

"I did it! I have them right here." She said excitedly, then held up two wands and sat back to watch the fireworks!

"Hey mum, give it back." Bill ordered.

"My wand!" Kingsley said at the same time.

Harry and Draco stepped forward at this point.

"Do you want to explain, or shall I do the honors?" Draco asked Harry.

"Oh, no lets share I think." Harry answered a big grin on his face.

"What the hell is going on here?" Bill demanded.

Kingsley and Bill looked around flabbergasted.

"Well, we all decided at the dinner to celebrate finishing our retreat that it would be a huge shame if the two of you didn't get the experience." Draco began.

Harry spoke next. "So, we know that as Head of Aurors, and Minister of Magic that a whole month of the retreat would be next to impossible. So we decided that turnabout is fair play, and at the very least a week away won't hurt and is totally called for."

"So, a change of clothes and a book each has been packed and you Minister and you Bill will be treated to the weeklong 'camping adventure' that we all experienced." Draco laughed.

Molly Weasley sat back and laughed and clapped her hands at the looks on her friend and son's faces.

"Fleur of course was informed so she packed a bag for you Bill." Hermione said. Bill looked shocked that his wife knew and didn't tell him. "Kingsley, Percy is taking care of all the work on your end so you can have a nice, 'relaxing' vacation." She smiled innocently when Kingsley narrowed his eyes at her.

Kingsley however was internally laughing at how he'd fallen straight into their trap. He knew they had planned this out for a while and had decided to let them have their fun. He'd not even felt Molly disarm him; he guessed his instincts were getting rusty. This might be an adventure he'd enjoy, it would certainly be interesting. So when he spoke, jaws dropped.

"Alright then, who packed my bag?" He asked as Harry took his arm, and Draco grabbed Bill and apparated them away.

In the kitchen after the guys returned there was much eating and drinking and celebrating their revenge!

**AN2: Okay, short and sweet but they had to get their kidnapping revenge! Kingsley and Bill both deserved that horrid campout! That's it folks, see ya next story! Clumsy!**


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